Worrying news from Brick Lane
There have been grumblings from the Bangladeshi Caterers’ Association recently that landlords in Brick Lane and the surrounding area are putting rents up too far. Rents, apparently, have doubled in the last four years. Though some of the Indian restaurants in the area have gone upmarket, I’d be very surprised if they had seen anything like a doubling in their revenues.
What’s worrying is that if rental pressure continues, we may see ‘Banglatown’ disappear.
There’s a precedent just down the road, in Spitalfields. When I moved to the East End in the 1980s, there was a great Sunday market in the old market buildings here, and interesting shops all around. There were antique stalls, where you might find an old violin or a wind-up gramophone player; there were a couple of antiquarian bookshops, some vintage clothes shops, a noodle stall, and a Suffolk organic farm that sold its own succulent meat and veg. There were crafts studios where you could order all kinds of things – stained glass, staircases, furniture.
Then came the developers. About two thirds of the market was knocked down and replaced by gleaming steel and glass boxes. And of course all those interesting little crafts business disappeared. They’ve been replaced by branded this and designer that – multiples with enough money to pay prime rents.
It’s a great place for City financiers to spend their bonuses. But it’s lost its life. Even the Spitz has gone – a great gallery and music venue, just told to move out no doubt to make way for a more profitable tenant. The heart of the area has stopped beating.
I do hope Brick Lane doesn’t go the same way. It’s a fascinating mix of cultures – Bangladeshi, Jewish (with its bagel bake), Britart at the old Truman’s Brewery, and with memories of Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel and the Huguenot silk weavers never far from the surface.
But in case Brick Lane does get replaced by a spiffing pastiche shopping street – if you’re spending some time in London, make sure you head down to the area to savour what it has to offer.
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