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Brick Lane is a street in the East End of London and heart of the city's Sylheti Bangladeshi community. It derives its name from former brick and tile manufacture, using the local brick earth deposits, in a distant past when the area was semi rural. The area has now become known as Banglatown. As a community it has been the first destination of a number of previous waves of migrants, also being the former heart of the city's Jewish community, and before that, of its Huguenot community. Brick Lane the Lane and the surrounding area is famous for Brick Lane Market, which takes place on Sundays. The market, like the one on Petticoat Lane, dates from when it was a Jewish community.
In the 20th century the Brick Lane area was important in the second wave of development of Anglo-Indian cuisine, as families from countries such as Bangladesh (mainly the Greater Sylhet region) migrated to London to look for work. The curry houses of Brick Lane are known for their cheap and cheerful food, and for allowing customers to bring their own beer (often the curry house itself will not sell alcohol as most are run by Muslims). More recently the area has also broadened to being a vibrant art and fashion student area, with considerable exhibition space. Each year most of the fine art and fashion courses exhibit their work near Brick Lane.
It has also been, since the late 1990s, the site of several of the city's best known night clubs, notably 93 Feet East and The Vibe Bar, both built on the site of The Old Truman Brewery, once the industrial centre of the area, now an office and entertainment complex, where indoor Upmarket of crammed stalls of art, design, fashion and one eclectic stand of printed matter (art, media, politics, fiction books), audio (Roma and other music) and video DVD (independent and art-house films) Balkan Depot, every Sunday between 10am and 5pm.
Since 1999, the UK's leading showroom and store for young and independent designers, The Laden Showroom, has been located at number 103. Next door at number 101 is Rokit, London's leading vintage clothing store. Brick Lane also hosts several fashion designer sales and fashion shows during London Fashion Week. It is also home to one of the few remaining independent bookshops, Eastside Books, which specialises in local history.
Nearby buildings of interest include Christ Church, Spitalfields, The Jamme Masjid or Great London Mosque on the corner of Fournier Street, and the head office of Habitat on Princelet Street.
Brick Lane is world famous for its graffiti which features artists such as Banksy and D*Face
The lane has been used in many music videos such as Just Jack"Glory Days" and The Killers"All These Things That I've Done".
Brick Lane features in the novels The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie and Brick Lane by Monica Ali. Another notable book on the area is Salaam Brick Lane by Tarquin Hall [1].