Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The street links Whitechapel High Street with the 17th century suburb of Spitalfields, and today is the heart of the city's Sylheti Bangladeshi community and has become known as Banglatown..

History

Winding through fields, the street was formerly Whitechapel Lane, but derives its current name from former brick and tile manufacture, using the local brickearth deposits, that began in the 15th century^[1]. By the 17th century, the street was being built up from the south^[2]. Successive waves of immigration began with Huguenot refugees spreading from Spitalfields, where the master weavers were based, in the 17th century.^[3] They were followed by Irish weavers,^[4] Ashkenazi Jews^[5] and, in the last century, Bangladeshis.^[6] The area became a centre for weaving, tailoring and the clothing industry, due to the abundance of semi- and unskilled immigrant labour.

In 1742, La Neuve Eglise a Huguenot chapel was built on the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street. By 1809, it had become The Jews’ Chapel, for promoting Christianity to the expanding Jewish population, and became a Methodist Chapel in 1819 (John Wesley having preached his first covenant sermon at the nearby Black Eagle Street Chapel). In 1898, the building was consecrated as the Machzikei HaDath, or Spitalfields Great Synagogue. In 1976, it became the London Jamme Masjid mosque to serve the expanding Bangladeshi community^[7]. Brewing came to Brick Lane before 1680, with water drawn from deep wells. One brewer was Joseph Truman, who is first recorded in 1683, but his family, particularly Benjamin Truman, went on to establish the sizeable Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane^[8].

The Brick Lane Market, developed in the 17th century for fruit and vegetables, sold outside the city. The Sunday market, like the ones on Petticoat Lane and nearby Columbia Road, dates from a dispensation given to the Jewish community.

Regeneration

In the 20th century the Brick Lane area was important in the second wave of development of Anglo-Indian cuisine, as families from countries such as Bangladesh (mainly the Greater Sylhet region) migrated to London to look for work. The curry houses of Brick Lane are known for their cheap and cheerful food, and for allowing customers to bring their own beer (often the curry house itself will not sell alcohol as most are run by Muslims). More recently the area has also broadened to being a vibrant art and fashion student area, with considerable exhibition space. Each year most of the fine art and fashion courses exhibit their work near Brick Lane.

It has also been, since the late 1990s, the site of several of the city's best known night clubs, notably 93 Feet East and The Vibe Bar, both built on the site of The Old Truman Brewery, once the industrial centre of the area, now an office and entertainment complex, where indoor UpMarket of crammed stalls of art, design, fashion and one eclectic stand of printed matter (art, media, politics, fiction books), audio (Roma and other music) and video DVD (independent and art-house films) Balkan Depot, every Sunday between 10am and 5pm.

Since 1999, the UK's leading showroom and store for young and independent designers, The Laden Showroom, has been located at number 103. Next door at number 101 is Rokit, London's leading vintage clothing store. Brick Lane also hosts several fashion designer sales and fashion shows during London Fashion Week. It is also home to one of the few remaining independent bookshops, Eastside Books, which specialises in local history.

Nearby buildings of interest include Christ Church, Spitalfields, The Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque on the corner of Fournier Street, and the head office of Habitat on Princelet Street.

Brick Lane is world famous for its graffiti which features artists such as Banksy, D*Face and Ben Eine The lane has been used in many music videos such as Just Jack"Glory Days" and The Killers"All These Things That I've Done".

The nearest tube station is currently Aldgate East. A campaign has been launched to change the name of the station to "Brick Lane" by 2012,^[9] but this has no official support.

Bibliography

Brick Lane features in the novels The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie and Brick Lane by Monica Ali. Another notable book on the area is Salaam Brick Lane by Tarquin Hall [1] and On Brick Lane (2007) by Rachel Lichtenstein.

References

See also

• Brick Lane Market
• Spitalfields
• Old Truman Brewery - The Black Eagle Brewery, on Brick Lane

External links

• The Boston Globe review of Brick Lane
• Neighbourhood website
• Brick Lane entry at the Survey of London (1957)
• Brick Lane through the last two hundred years, including many genealogical pubs.

Coordinates: 51°31′19″N, 0°4′18″W

London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Districts	Bethnal Green · Blackwall · Bow · Bromley-by-Bow · Cambridge Heath · Cubitt Town · Globe Town · Isle of Dogs · Limehouse · Mile End · Millwall · Old Ford · Poplar · Ratcliff · Shadwell · Spitalfields · Stepney · Wapping · Whitechapel
Attractions	Tower of London · St Katharine Docks · Christ Church, Spitalfields · Museum of Childhood · Museum in Docklands
Street markets	Petticoat Lane · Brick Lane · Columbia Road · Old Spitalfields · Roman Road
Parks and open spaces in Tower Hamlets

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