Changing Places Distant Place Study: BRICK LANE

Question 1

What is the location of Brick Lane?

Answer 1

• Tower Hamlets borough of East London.

* Passes through Spitalfields.

Question 2

How has the major industry associated with Brick Lane / Spitalfields changed over time?

Answer 2

• Early 17th century: popular location for breweries / market.
• Late 17th century: French Huguenots -> silk weaving.
• 18th century: Irish immigrants -> weaving / tailoring (linen).
• Now: art and fashion industries.

Question 3

How has the population of Brick Lane / Spitalfields changed over time?

Answer 3

• Traditionally white British.
• 17th century influx of French Huguenots.
• 18th/19th/20th century influx of Irish / Jewish community.
• Recently influx of Bangladeshi immigrants -> “Banglatown”.

Question 4

How have the demographic changes to Brick Lane / Spitalfields altered the area physically?

Answer 4

• Multicultural place.
• Variety of religious places of worship
-> Huguenot church, Methodist chapel, Jewish, synagogue, Muslim Mosque.
• Weekly Bangladesh newspaper has its office here.

Question 5

What do guidebooks say that Brick Lane is the place for in London?

Answer 5

Good cheap curries.

Question 6

What percentage of Brick Lane’s population is economically active?

Answer 6

80.1%

Aged 16-64.

Question 7

What percentage of Brick Lane’s population is aged 65+?

What does this mean?

Answer 7

5.2% = low proportion of dependency.

Question 8

What percentage of Brick Lane’s population is Bangladeshi?

How does this compare with London as a whole?

Answer 8

41% Brick Lane.

2% London.

Question 9

What percentage of Brick Lane’s population is White British?

How does this compare with London as a whole?

Answer 9

27% Brick Lane.

47% London.

Question 10

What percentage of Brick Lane’s population is Muslim?

How does this compare with London as a whole?

Answer 10

41.5% Brick Lane.

<20% London.

Question 11

What percentage of Brick Lane’s population is Christian?

How does this compare with London as a whole?

Answer 11

18. 4% Brick Lane.

48. 4% London.

Question 12

What was the population of Brick Lane / Spitalfields in 2011 according to census data?
What percentage is male and female?

Answer 12

12,578 total population.

54% male, 46% female.

Question 13

What is the population density in Brick Lane / Spitalfields according to 2011 census data?
How does this compare to the borough average?

Answer 13

145 people per hectare.

129 borough average.

Question 14

Does Brick Lane / spitalfields have a youthful or ageing population?

Answer 14

Youthful.

Question 15

What is the deprivation ranking of Brick Lane in 2010 and 2015?

Answer 15

2010 = most deprived decile out of 10.
2015 = 2nd most deprived decile.

Question 16

True or false: Spitalfields and Banglatown was in the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England

Answer 16

True.

Question 17

How has IMD changed in Tower Hamlets between 2010-2015?

Why?

Answer 17

Tower Hamlets is less deprived now than in 2010.
-> due to gentrification, middle class families moved to poorer parts

Question 18

Name the main social characteristics / inequalities that are present in Brick Lane / Spitalfields.

Answer 18

• Crime.

* Children in poverty.

Question 19

How many crimes were reported in Spitalfields and Banglatown in February 2017?
What for?

Answer 19

338 crimes reported.

Majority for antisocial behaviour, theft, drugs.

Question 20

Give the percentage of children in poverty in Tower Hamlets in 2012.
How does this compare to London as a whole?

Answer 20

39% Tower Hamlets.

23.5% London.

Question 21

How many schools are within a 3 mile radius of Brick Lane?

Answer 21

336 schools.

Question 22

How many schools out of the 336 in the 3 mile radius of Brick Lane have a ‘good’ ofsted rating?

Answer 22

150 = ‘good’

Question 23

How is Brick Lane represented by art?

Answer 23

• Reputation for art and fashion.
• ‘The Mecca of London street art’ - London Ravish website.
• Hackney Post has interactive map of street art in neighbouring Shoreditch.
• Huge number of new galleries opening -> helped financially by gentrification of the area and increasing tourist numbers.

Question 24

How is Brick Lane represented by maps?

Answer 24

Local artist / cartographer Adam Dant made map of Spitalfields life, 2011.
• Identifies key locations within the area today + historic background of a variety of places.
• Inc people who have made the area special eg artist Tracy Emin, chestnut seller Fred.
• Dant’s map has a strong sense of place.
• Good example of counter mapping.

Charles Booth’s Poverty Map (1890).
• Interviewed families, characterised into 7 categories eg ‘well-to-do’, ‘viscous, semi-criminal’.
• Colour coded houses of a large parts of London.
• Shows Brick Lane has a range of fortunes.
• Nearby Whitechapel -> widespread poverty.

Question 25

Define counter mapping

Answer 25

A bottom up process where people produce their own maps, informed by their local knowledge / understanding.

Question 26

How is Brick Lane / Spitalfields represented by media? (Guidebooks)

Answer 26

Go Britannia, travel guide.
• “An excellent place to find a good cheap curry restaurant”
• “19th century..slum of narrow alleyways..one million people were crowded..decaying houses”
• “Today is a busy narrow road”
• “You might just meet a television newscaster, a member of parliament, or another celebrity”.

• > was deprived, now thriving, popular.
• > likely biased.

Question 27

How is Brick Lane / Spitalfields represented by media? (Blogs)

Answer 27

Spitalfields Life, the Gentle Author - 2009 daily blogs.
• Thousands of readers around the world.
• Talks about people and their lives -> culture of spitalfields.
• “Exuberant richness + multiplicity of culture”.

-> positive, depends on individual perception.

Question 28

How is Brick Lane / Spitalfields represented by Poems?

Answer 28

Author: Sally Flood.
• “Small time drug peddlers sell their dreams”.
• “Hopeful prostitues”.

-> crime, hope - one persons interpretation.

Question 29

How is Brick Lane represented by books? (Also films)

Answer 29

Brick Lane (Monica Ali).
• Street offers opportunity, freedom, independence to a young Bangladeshi girl who immigrated for an arranged marriage.
• New type of society / community.

On Brick Lane (Rachel Lichtenstein).
• “Vibrant, dynamic community”.
• “Gangsters, artists, shopkeepers, street life”
• “Always vocal people”
• Immigration -> fascists, anarchists, Jews, Bangladeshis.

Question 30

Where has regeneration taken place in Brick Lane / Spitalfields?

Answer 30

Truman’s Brewery (1669-1989).
Market place.
Housing improvements.

Question 31

How has regeneration in Brick Lane / Spitalfields changed the area?

Answer 31

Truman’s Brewery (1669-1989) struggled from competition of imported lagers / merges among British breweries.
-> now an 11 acre site containing exhibition space, workshops, boutiques, cafes.

17th century market place sold fruit + veg at small stalls / sheds.
-> now tourist attraction selling artwork, fashion, homewear accessories, vintage clothing, antique furniture.

Housing improvements eg Fournir Street.
-> displacement of original residents - “hotbed of immigrants”..”no longer has a fraction of the character” (The Guardian).

Question 32

What did many national newspapers report on the subject of gentrification in Brick Lane / Spitalfields?

Answer 32

Reported many anti-gentrification protests in and around Spitalfields in September 2015.