On my trip down to London this October, I finally made it to Brick Lane, a street in East London.
Twice.
Once, in the company of a local resident and fellow photographer, David Morrison, and once by myself.
I really enjoyed the walk with David. We met at Liverpool station on a Sunday afternoon and after a short look around spitalfields, an artisan style lunch of savory pies, we set off towards Brick Lane. Having David to show me around was fantastic and I was able to get some sense of the history behind behind Brick Lane from him.
Successive waves of immigrants settled in the area: in the 17th century, French Huguenots expanded into the area for housing; the master weavers were based in Spitalfields. Starting with the Huguenots, the area became a centre for weaving, tailoring and the developing clothing industry. It continued to attract immigrants, who provided semi- and unskilled labour.
In the 19th century, Irish and Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the area. Jewish immigration continued into the early 20th century.
In the later 20th century, Bangladeshis comprised the major group of immigrants and gradually predominated in the area.
The area once associated with poor slums and the scene of Jack the Ripper murders, today is extremely popular with London’s edgy and artistic crowd, featuring galleries, restaurants, markets and festivals during the year, not to mention their curry houses.
I was able to browse the vintage market, which is essentially made up of stalls owned by British and European vintage specialists and offering old clothes ranging from the early 1920s to the 1990s. Also offered were accessories, vintage records, and a random collection of unique old trinkets. In addition to the vintage market, there was a large food market with food represented from many countries. My eyes were bigger than my tummy in the food market. I didn’t buy anything but I would have if I already hadn’t had lunch!
It was a cloudy and rainy day but it cleared up a bit in the afternoon. Long enough for me to appreciate the beautiful street art. I have never seen so much beautiful street art. French artist C215 often paints portraits around Brick Lane. Banksy is also rumored to have created masterpieces there, although I am didn’t run into any of his work. One of the outstanding pieces of work that I ran into included a giant crane, which I was told was created by the Belgian Artist ROA.
Unfortunately, I could not identify all the pieces of art that I can across although I am hoping to be able to do so over time. I just loved the way walls, shutters, windows were decorated and turned into live pieces of art. I hear that these change from time to time as the artwork is replaced and new work goes up on the walls on a regular basis. What a wonderfully quirky premise.!
I had so much fun there and I would recommend it highly to fellow street photographers. There is so much to see and explore and shoot!