ABOUT BRICK LANE & BRICK LANES HISTORY
Brick Lane or ‘Banglatown’ as some locals would like to call it, got its name from the brick kilns that were located there, which were used to rebuild the City after the Great Fire of London. Since the 1960’s Brick Lane has been the centre of the Bengali Community but during the 18 to 1900’s it was mostly a Jewish community, and was the high street of the ghetto. The changing ethnic community here is highlighted on the corner of Fournier Street by the fact that the Jamme Masjod (Great Mosque) was originally, in 1743, a Huguenot Church. It then became a Wesleyan Chapel in 1809; then in 1897 was the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, until 1976 when it became the main mosque in the area, which is what it is today.
The bottom half of Brick Lane is covered in restaurants who are vying for trade in the evenings, and in the middle of Brick Lane stands the Old Truman Brewery which houses the trendy bars, fashion, art and IT making it a hangout for many different types. The Brick Lane area also houses the famous Petticoat Lane, Columbia Road and Brick Lane Markets.
The Brick Lane market is north of the brewery and is open 8am-2pm on Sundays selling bric-a-brac. The stalls are not actually on Brick Lane but are on Sclater Street and Cheshire Street.