Brick Lane
Brick Lane is a street in the East End of London, in the borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs south from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road in Shoreditch, and enters Whitechapel; its south end is linked to Whitechapel High Street by the short stretch of Osborn Street. Today, it is the heart of the country's Bangladeshi community and is known to some as Banglatown.
15th to 18th centuries
The street was formerly known as Whitechapel Lane and wound through fields. It derives its current name from brick and tile manufacture started in the 15th century, which used the local brick earth deposits. The street featured in the 16th-century Woodcut map of London as a partially-developed crossroad leading north from the city's most easterly edge, and by the 17th century was being developed northwards from the Barres (now Whitechapel High Street) as a result of expanding population.
Brewing came to Brick Lane before 1680, with water drawn from deep wells. One brewer was Joseph Truman, first recorded in 1683. His family, particularly Benjamin Truman, went on to establish the sizeable Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane. The Brick Lane Market was first developed in the 17th century for fruit and vegetables sold outside the City.
Successive waves of immigrants settled in the area. In the 17th century, French Huguenots expanded into the area for housing; the master weavers were based in Spitalfields. Starting with the Huguenots, the area became a center for weaving, tailoring, and the developing clothing industry. It continued to attract immigrants, who provided semi-skilled and unskilled labor.
Trivia
Whitechapel area is best known as the site of Jack the Ripper murders.
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