Filled with true, resonant stories of East London life from the ancient to the modern. Ancient Sunlight focuses most intently on the dying habits of the 20th-century as they are swept aside by an onslaught of gentrification; only the latest development in the story of Whitechapel, the first stop east of the heart of London. Stephen Watts steps into the histories of his home borough and finds his way through two thousand years of incredible change.