Brick Lane
Brick Lane (Bengali: ব্রিক লেন, romanized: Brik Len) is a famous street in the East End of London, in the borough of Tower Hamlets.
The Sunday market, like those on Petticoat Lane and nearby Columbia Road, dates from a dispensation given by the government to the Jewish community in the 19th century.
The Brick Lane Farmers' Market opened in 2010, intended to be held every Sunday in nearby Bacon Street;[10] it has now closed.
[11] In the later 20th century, Bengali Muslims (specifically the Sylhetis) comprised the major group of immigrants and gradually dominated the demography in the area.
These settlers helped shape Bangladeshi migration to Britain; many families from Beanibazar, Jagannathpur and Bishwanath tend to live in the Brick Lane area though they spread around the London city.
[15] 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.
According to EasyJet Traveller magazine,[16] the top three curry houses on Brick Lane in 2021 are Aladin, Sheba and City Spice.
Their regular stopover paved the way for food outlets to be opened; these catered at first for an all-male workforce, for family migration and settlement took place some decades later.
Humble beginnings such as this gave rise to Brick Lane as the famous curry capital of the UK (alongside Birmingham's Balti Triangle).
Brick Lane has a regular display of graffiti, which features artists such as Banksy, Stik, ROA, D*Face, Ben Eine and Omar Hassan.
The family's history continues to be reflected by the naming of streets in the area around Brick Lane, including: Nearby buildings of interest include Christ Church, Spitalfields, the Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque on the corner of Fournier Street (the building represents a history of successive communities of immigrants in East End), and The Rag Factory on Heneage Street (once home to Turner Prize nominees Tracey Emin and Gary Hume, now a thriving arts space).
The street is the location for Monica Ali's book Brick Lane, published in 2003, and the film of the same name of 2007 starring Tannishtha Chatterjee.
Activists told The Guardian they intended to burn copies of Ali's book during a rally to be held on 30 July 2006, but the demonstration passed without incident.
[27] A large collection of photographs of the characters and salespeople who worked on the markets in Brick Lane were taken by Fran May between 1976 and 1978, whilst she was a student of photography at the Royal College of Art.
