A Walking Tour Around Spitalfields
A Mix of Cultures in London’s East End
Spitalfields has been home to immigrants from refugee French Protestants in the 1600s to today's Bangladeshi community - each new nation leaving its mark on the place.
Just a few yards from the borders of the City of London, the East End begins. Instead of finance houses and glitzy new skyscrapers, you’ll find warehouses and narrow streets, and markets where the stallholders can sell you anything from incense to screwdrivers.
Many Histories in a Single Street
Spitalfields has many histories. French Protestants fleeing persecution were the first immigrants to come here, and established themselves in the cloth trade, eventually becoming wealthy and moving out. In the nineteenth century, Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe and Germany to come here. And over the last fifty years, Brick Lane has become a centre for Bangladeshis, as kosher restaurants have given way to curry houses.
Leave Bishopsgate by way of Brushfield Street and you’ll come to the refurbished Spitalfields market – originally the main fruit and vegetable market for this part of London. Much of the market has been demolished and replaced by new office blocks with luxury shops, but the east end of the market is still preserved in its original fine buildings.
Facing us across Commercial Street is Christ Church Spitalfields, a gleaming white classical façade marooned in the busy world of passing trucks and vans. Nicholas Hawksmoor designed the church in 1711, creating a distinctive vertical accent that draws the eye upwards.
Jack the Ripper's Spitalfields
A rather different aspect of the area’s history is shown by the Ten Bells pub on Commercial Street. This is where Jack the Ripper met at least one of his victims, and the lodging houses of another were not far from here.
Over the main road, Fournier Street is one of the best preserved early Georgian streets in London. Its brick townhouses are particularly notable for the huge expanse of glass windows in the mansard roofed top storey. This is where the silk weavers kept their looms, the huge windows giving them good working light. Modern art fans will find interest in this street too, as Gilbert & George have lived here (at number 12) for many years.
A Church Becomes a Synagogue - Then a Mosque
At the far end of Fournier Street is the impressive classical bulk of what’s now the Jamme Mashjid or Friday Mosque. This was originally the Huguenot church; later, a nonconfomist chapel and later still, a synagogue. Like the area, this building has taken on the characteristics of its latest inhabitants.
You’re now on Brick Lane, alternatively known as Banglatown with its impressive array of Indian restaurants, from traditional ‘curry shops’ to gourmet diners. Head left, and you’ll soon see the monumental remains of the Truman Brewery. The brewery buildings now house media and art businesses and the whole of this area has become newly trendy. Yet some of the back streets on either side still seem to breathe the air of Victorian London – seedy, deserted, litter-strewn, they feel as if Jack the Ripper could still step out from behind a door, or a pea-souper fog might descend.
On Sundays, you’ll find the Brick Lane market in action. Tools, old clothes, second hand furniture, mountain bikes, discounted food – just about whatever you want, you can find it. (For fashion bargains, head back towards Bishopsgate and the Petticoat Lane market, also on Sundays.)
If you want a snack, but you’re not hungry enough for a meal, visit the Brick Lane Beigel Bake – one of just a few remnants of the old Jewish life of the East End. Try the hot salt beef bagel with a gherkin, or the very fine cheesecake, to round off your visit to this interesting corner of London.
