Photographing East London - Brick Lane

Brick Lane (Bangla: ব্রিক লেন) (as you can see in the picture) is a long street in the Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The street runs from Bethnal Green in the north, and passes through Spitalfields (where we began our photography class). 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. Brick Lane is now it the heart of the city's Sylheti Bangladeshi community, and is sometimes known as Banglatown.
The street was formerly called Whitechapel Lane. Emma Elizabeth Smith was viciously assaulted in Osborn Street, the part of Brick Lane that meets Whitechapel High Street, on 3 April 1888. It was one of the first of the eleven Whitechapel Murders, some of which were attributed to the serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Brick Lane derives its current name from former brick and tile manufacture, using the local brick earth deposits, that began in the 15th century.
Immigration began with Huguenot refugees spreading from Spitalfields, where the master weavers were based, in the 17th century. They were followed by Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews and, in the last century, Bangladeshis. The area became a centre for weaving, tailoring and the clothing industry, due to the abundance of semi- and unskilled immigrant labour.
The changing face of Brick Lane can be told by a Huguenot chapel which was built on the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street in 1742. By 1809, it had become The Jews’ Chapel, for promoting Christianity to the expanding Jewish population. In 1898, the building was consecrated as the Machzikei HaDath, or Spitalfields Great Synagogue. It became the London Jamme Masjid mosque in 1976.


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 Black Eagle Brewery.
Brick Lane to me is the London home of bagels. As every one knows you can’t get good bagels outside NYC but 10 years ago when we first moved here, this was the only place you could get a rough approximation. . I had a bagel on Sunday in one of the remaining shops and it was extremely disappointing. Bagels are widely available now everywhere. The bagels sold at my local Sainsbury are better.
You should have seen the queue though!