The London of Brick Lane

     The Tower Hamlets, as mentioned in the first chapter of Brick Lane by Monica Ali, is a borough, or district, of the Greater London area. Known for its rich cultural diversity, the district’s close proximity to the Thames provides the area with easy access for trade (Britannica). Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, immigrants were often first greeted by the borough’s famous docks and wharves (Britannica). The Tower Hamlets’ significance in Brick Lane lies with its large population of Bengali people who first began settling in the area in the 1920s,…

Brick Lane serves as the main focal point to Monica Ali’s novel, making the location the title of her work. She describes the time she’s past visited, when the restaurants “smelled of fresh boiled rice” and “old fried fat” where waiters stood outside the doors with menus and smiles (Ali). Brick Lane is today home to multiple food markets and restaurants, and is the heart of London’s Bangladeshi community.  Before it was a tourist destination for all things food and culture, Brick Lane was a place of arrival and settlement for migrants due to the proximity to London’s…

     In modern times, Buckingham Palace serves as the primary residence for the royal family of the United Kingdom. As Chanu, Nanzeen’s husband in Brick Lane, notes in Chapter 14, this has been the case since 1837 as the reign of Queen Victoria began (Royal Museums Greenwich). However, it has been in the possession of the family since 1761 when King George III purchased it “...for his wife Queen Charlotte to use it as a comfortable family home…” (…

Historically speaking, the East End of London has been home to impoverished individuals and armed conflicts for decades. Out of this East End, this stop includes both Cable Street and St. George Estate, as they are inextricably linked together.

In the 1930s, Sir Oswald Mosley’s (former Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom) British Union of Fascists attempted to divide Christians and Jews in the East End. He organized a march of 3,000 of his followers in October 1936, which was luckily blocked by protesters’ barricades at the junction of Cable Street and Leman Street. The main…