Brick Lane London

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Date: 27 April 2008
Venue: Brick Lane, East London
Tube Station: Aldgate East
Camera: Canon Powershot A430 4.0MP
It was more than 1 month ago I went to Brick Lane. The other name for Brick Lane is Bangla Town as most of the Bangladeshi and Indians live around that area and can say that all the shops in Brick Lane are either Indian or Bangladeshi.

Desserts & Sweets

BanglaCity Continental Supermarket

As I walk down Brick Lane, I realized some "really good" restaurants.

Chutneys - Brick Lane "International Chef of The Year" 2006 - 2007 & 2007 -2008

Papadoms Brick Lane - "Curry Chef of The Year" Award Winner of Brick Lane Curry Festival 2006/2007/2008

The Shampan - Best Bangladeshi Restaurant of the Year (didn't mention which year)

So they win the awards every single year continuously. I wonder how good are their food? And how much the meals are going to cost?

As I walked down the lane again, there is a big Truman Brewery building appearing in front of me. At first I thought it was just an old building or a brewery which is still in operation.

In fact, there were like huge amount of people walking around the building, and when I walked to the main entrance... I was shocked... everyone was having food in their hands.
Going into the main entrance of the factory building...

Juices

People, table, benches... food.... even carom table!!

Malaysian Cuisine anyone??

Passing by the food section at the front, it is all clothing and accessories at the back end of the building.

Underwear anyone?

Continue walking to the back door of the brewery, the famous "Rootmaster" Restaurant is 'parked' in the car park. It is actually an old Route Master, for those who doesn't know, Route Master is the name Londoners called for the old double-deckers which ran around London City for many decades. So, the owner of the restaurant bought this old bus and turned into a "Rootmaster" serving vegetarian food if not mistaken. It was featured on the newspaper for many times.



Just across the "Rootmaster", there were few stalls, one of them is Japanese.
They sell Takoyaki. If not sure what is that, just enlarge the photo below to see what actually is a Takoyaki. I felt like trying, but in the end I gave up as I don't feel like spending money...
I went back to the main street after that to continue walking down the lane. The whole scene start to change as the stalls are starting to get a little rough. Most of the stalls are just on the floor.

I heard Polish sausages are nice... yet to try it.

The Backyard market, this is actually my main destination of the day. Actually it's another building like the Truman Brewery which I mentioned before, but this one is just a big warehouse, which housed the stalls which are still fighting to get a place in Truman Brewery. The rent is cheaper here but the customers are far less than the successor.

Why is that my main destination? My previous colleague is selling her art works there, and it was her last day of doing it as she said it's not easy, requires lots of time and dedication to it while doesn't make much profit out of it. She's a student by the way.
She was chatting with a customer when I took this photo. Anyway, she's Brazilian... doesn't look like Brazilian at all? Of course, as her parents are all Japanese, so it's Brazilian Japanese. She's a fashion design graduate.

After visiting her, I went out to continue down the lane again.


I wonder how much profit they made by selling all these.. especially the last photo... a pile of phone chargers scattered on the floor... some old shoes... etc. I even saw a stall which has a computer mouse on the floor, which looks dirty and kicked around... I wonder who's gonna buy it.

Reaching the end of Brick Lane, I saw this lovely Swedish Cafe call Fika. The waitress was holding a plate of Swedish Chocolate cake for tasting at the door, she even posed for me as you can see... :P Lovely Swedish lady.
I walked near and tried some. It is very nice. Moist and chocolaty. It is served with ice-cream as a dessert and cost around nearly £4.
That is the end of the Brick Lane visit... Bangla Town with trendy youngsters around...