Brick Lane is a street in theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets, in theEast End of London. It is part of an old area which includesBethnal Green,Whitechapel,Spitalfields andPetticoat Lane.
Today, it is the heart of the city's BritishBangladeshi community and is known to some asBanglatown.[1] It is famous for its manycurry houses.
Brick Lane gets its name from formerbrick andtile manufacture, using the local brick earth deposits, that began in the 15th century.[2]
Successive waves of immigration began withHuguenot refugees spreading from Spitalfields, where the masterweavers were based, in the 17th century.[3] This started a connection withclothing which lasted for over three centuries.
The Huguenots were followed byIrish,[4]Ashkenazi Jews[5] and, in the last century,Bangladeshis.[6] The area became a centre forweaving,tailoring and the clothing industry, due to the abundance of semi- and unskilled immigrant labour.
Brewing came to Brick Lane before 1680, with water drawn from deep wells. One brewer was Joseph Truman, first recorded in 1683. His family went on to establish the sizableBlack Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane.[7]
TheBrick Lane Market was developed in the 17th century for fruit and vegetables. The Sunday market, like the ones onPetticoat Lane and nearbyColumbia Road, dates from a dispensation given to the Jewish community.[8] The Brick Lane Farmers' Market opened 6th June 2010.
Emma Elizabeth Smith was viciously assaulted and robbed in Osborn Street, the part of Brick Lane that meets Whitechapel High Street, in the early hours of 3 April 1888. It was one of the first of the elevenWhitechapel Murders, some of which were done by theserial killer,Jack the Ripper.
In 1742, La Neuve Eglise, a Huguenot chapel, was built on the corner of Brick Lane andFournier Street. By 1809, it had become The Jews’ Chapel, for promotingChristianity to the expandingJewish population, and became aMethodist 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 GreatSynagogue. In 1976, it became the London Jamme Masjid (Great London), to serve the expanding British Bangladeshi community.[9] The building isGrade II* listed.[10] Many Bangladeshi immigrants to Brick Lane were from theGreater Sylhet region. These settlers helped shape Bangladeshi migration to Britain; families fromJagannathpur andBishwanath tend to dominate in the Brick Lane area today.[11]