East of Piccadilly

Need to know:

London City airport is a short hop from Brick Lane. The airport bus takes you to Liverpool Street and it's just a short walk from there.

Tourists wearying of Knightsbridge or Kensington can find a rich and vibrant alternative in London's East End. Rebecca Ford drops in for a curry and a bagel LONDON'S East End has never been what you might call a tourist hot spot. Jellied eels and Jack the Ripper make a less-than-tempting combination and, unsurprisingly, few visitors feel inclined to explore this almost mythical part of the capital. But all that's changing as parts of the East End become hotter than the goods on sale from Del Boy's suitcase. With cafes springing up and artists moving in, the East End is becoming London's new artistic hub. The East End proper begins at Aldgate, the site of one of six gates into the Roman city of Londinium. For centuries it has been home to various immigrant communities - Huguenots, Jews, now Bangladeshis - and its rich history seeps from every stone. Much of the activity is centred on Brick Lane - or Bangla Town as it's known - an area previously noted solely for its general grottiness and cheap curries. Now, thanks to slow and careful redevelopment of the Old Truman Brewery, a slightly chaotic 11-acre site, artists, designers and musicians are opening all manner of workshops and studios. Several shows for this year's London Fashion Week were staged at the brewery, and Shelley Fox, recent winner of the prestigious Jerwood Fashion Prize, has her studio here. Then there are places such as The Vibe Bar, where students come for free internet access; Same, which sells wacky contemporary furniture, and the Moroccan-style Coffee House which is said to include David Bowie among its fans. Many spaces in the Old Truman Brewery site are still empty and opening hours vary wildly, but you can sense the buzz - and the great thing is that there's still a feeling that this is happening in a real community. While there is a Bohemian vibe to the brewery, an older London can still be found in the streets nearby. In the Pride of Spitalfields, a typical old pub in Heneage Street, regulars come in for pints of real ale and a chat. An elderly man warns me to mind the hole in the seat as I go to sit down. He points to a black and white photograph on the wall and says: "He made that hole - old Bill. He worked at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. He always sat there." Interested, as this was the foundry where Big Ben was cast, I am about to ask more when the woman next to him adds proudly: "Yes, and he nearly died there too." The cultural mix is intriguing. Along Brick Lane there are bustling bagel shops which remind you this was once a Jewish area, and of course there are still many curry houses lining the road. At the corner of Fournier Street is a building which was once a Methodist chapel, then a synagogue and now a mosque. Entering Asha, a sari shop, I admire a rich blue fabric exquisitely decorated with tiny beads. The girl behind the counter tells me business is buoyant. Thanks to Changing Rooms, she says, people are now using saris to make curtains. The streets around Brick Lane are well worth exploring. There are some lovely Georgian buildings that once belonged to Huguenot merchants and silk weavers. Hanbury Street, site of one of the infamous Whitechapel murders, is being carefully cleaned up and has now lost the air of menace that once lurked there. The beauty of the architecture is one of the most surprising things about the East End. Lift your eyes from shop window level and you can spot elegant stonework and some surprising inscriptions. Above some alms houses on the Whitechapel High Street, a short walk away, is a legend stating their purpose as being for "decay'd Masters and Commanders of ships or ye widows of such". The East End is full of the unexpected. In Commercial Street, which runs parallel to Brick Lane, there is a striking white church which turns out to be Christ Church Spitalfields, the masterpiece of Nicholas Hawksmoor, Sir Christopher Wren's famous pupil. Next to it is a public toilet, itself a listed building still decorated with its original tiles. It is currently being converted into a cyber cafe - there are no rules here. While the area is fairly quiet during the week, it becomes almost impossible to move on Sundays when the market stalls appear. There is Petticoat Lane clothes market; old Spitalfields Market which sells everything from gorgeous hand-made soaps to organic vegetables; the wonderful time-warp Columbia Road Market for the most incredible plants and flowers, and Brick Lane market itself, all squeezed into one small part of London. But if the crowds get too much you can always escape. Further to the east, at Mile End, steps lead down to the Regent Canal and a secret world. The noise of the traffic recedes, narrowboats slip by and the occasional jogger pounds the towpath. You could almost forget that you're in London. On May 9 the area round Brick Lane will be more crowded than ever thanks to the Baishakhi Mela, the Bengali New Year Festival, a colourful event showcasing local arts and culture which looks set to grow in popularity. Last year it attracted over 20,000 people; in 1999, who knows? One thing is certain, though: this year, the East End is certainly the place to be

Copyright 1999
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