East End & Brick Lane: Street Art, Bagels & Bangladeshi Curry
The East End—the area east of the City of London—has always been London's first port of call for new arrivals: Huguenot silk weavers in the 17th century, Jewish migrants fleeing Eastern European pogroms in the late 19th century, Bangladeshi communities from the 1970s onwards, and most recently a wave of creative industries that has transformed Shoreditch into London's most vibrant cultural district. This walk takes in the street art of Shoreditch, the Sunday market and curry houses of Brick Lane, the Victorian grandeur of Spitalfields Market, and the galleries and coffee shops that define the neighbourhood today.
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Shoreditch & the Street Art Quarter
Shoreditch—the area around Old Street and Shoreditch High Street—is London's street art capital. The walls change constantly: new pieces appear overnight, old ones are painted over, and the whole neighbourhood functions as a rotating outdoor gallery. Start at Shoreditch High Street Overground station and walk south-east: Rivington Street and Great Eastern Street have high concentrations of commissioned murals; the laneways off Brick Lane (Hanbury Street, Commercial Street) layer decades of tags, paste-ups and stencils. Banksy has left his mark here. Look for the work of ROA (giant animals), Ben Eine (letterforms), Phlegm (intricate black-and-white illustration) and dozens of international artists.
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Brick Lane — The Curry Mile and the Bagel Shop
Brick Lane is the cultural spine of East London—a 1-kilometre street that has absorbed successive waves of immigrants and retained their culinary imprints. The southern section is Banglatown: 40+ Bangladeshi and Indian restaurants, many open 24 hours, with touts outside trying to lure diners in. The food quality varies enormously—ask locals rather than following the menu boards. At the northern end: Beigel Bake at number 159, open 24/7 since 1974, selling salt beef bagels for under £5, salt beef hand-carved in front of you, mustard and gherkin included. On Sundays the whole street becomes a market—vintage clothes, street food, records, bric-a-brac—and the crowd is the most interesting cross-section of London.
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Spitalfields Market — Victorian Market, Modern Traders
Old Spitalfields Market is a spectacular Victorian iron-and-glass market building (1887) that has been trading continuously since the 17th century. The original wholesale fruit and vegetable market relocated in 1991; the building now houses an indoor market of independent fashion, food, craft and vintage traders. Thursday is antiques day; Sunday is the main market day with the most stalls. The surrounding streets—Artillery Lane, Lamb Street, the area around Christ Church Spitalfields—contain some of the best-preserved 18th-century domestic architecture in London: the original Huguenot weaver's houses, now residential.
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Whitechapel Gallery — East London's Art Institution
The Whitechapel Gallery on Whitechapel High Street is one of London's most important contemporary art galleries—not as famous as Tate Modern but with a history of showing significant artists first: Picasso's Guernica had its British debut here in 1938; the gallery hosted Jackson Pollock's first UK exhibition, and it gave early shows to Lucian Freud and Gilbert & George. Free entry to the permanent galleries. The two Victorian terracotta buildings are architecturally distinguished and the bookshop is one of the best art bookshops in London. The café does a good lunch.
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Columbia Road Flower Market — Sunday Morning Paradise
Columbia Road Flower Market runs every Sunday from 8am to 3pm on a short Victorian street just north of Shoreditch—and it is one of the most intensely pleasurable market experiences in London. Around 60 stalls sell cut flowers, plants, bulbs, seeds and horticultural accessories at good prices; the traders are the most theatrical salespeople in London, shouting out prices and bargaining with the crowd. The street fills up rapidly from 9am; arrive early for the best flowers or late (after 1pm) for the best prices. The surrounding streets have excellent independent coffee shops and brunch spots.
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Broadway Market & London Fields — Hackney's Village
Walk north-east from Columbia Road to Broadway Market—a Saturday farmers' market (though the stalls are open weekdays for the cafés and shops) that runs along a Victorian street in Hackney, adjacent to London Fields park. Broadway Market epitomises the gentrification of East London: artisan bread, natural wine, vintage books, handmade ceramics, craft beer from Pressure Drop brewery around the corner. London Fields has a lido (outdoor heated pool, open year-round), a large open space, and the best pub garden in East London at the Cat & Mutton on the corner. On a sunny Saturday afternoon this is the heart of young London.