please empty your brain below
While recalling the illustrations on Rocque's 1746 Map of London, I wasn't previously aware of the term tenterground - so today is already worthwhile.

Frank F | 21.02.22 - 7:20 a.m. | #

I've not been for a curry on Brick Lane for quite a while, but I seem to recall always picking the one with the picture of Princess Diana on the wall. Not that she'd ever been a customer - perhaps they thought the picture was a draw in itself.

I'm sure this will have been linked here before, but here's a marvellous little documentary from 1992 about the Beigel Bake and its customers that's well worth ten minutes of your time
vimeo.com/35575778

martin | 21.02.22 - 7:21 a.m. | #

My mum and her mum used to live in the Flower & Dean street tenements off Brick Lane, and so did my dad's nan (which was how my parents met). Moving forward in time, the Beigal Bake was where my friends and I would rock up at 4am after a night out. Brick Lane looks a bit artfully designed these days but there's still a pulse under the surface, as your post today shows!

Jayne | 21.02.22 - 7:38 a.m. | #

Brick Lane had an Odeon cinema which later became the Naz cinema before closing and there is now a block of apartments on the site.

I often used to go to Fournier Street to visit people I knew who had a house there which they were restoring to residential use from it garment factory days

John | 21.02.22 - 8:22 a.m. | #

Thanks as ever for the blog.

Quick relevant piece of info I thought you may find interesting. TH council wanted to rename Osborn St to Lower Brick Lane - they were stopping people in the street asking about it last year. No idea if anything came of it - some fairly high level details here.

Alex | 21.02.22 - 8:31 a.m. | #

I went to the Crosstown Doughnuts website because I assumed the "£30 more per dozen" was a typo. It wasn't.

Blimey.

Scott | Homepage | 21.02.22 - 9:15 a.m. | #

> The last few metres of Alie Street are actually called Goodman's Stile - I've not sussed why…

Sussed! Goodman’s Stile, “I suppose which used to be a stepping place into Goodman’s Fields” (reminiscenses of Dr John Sebastian Helmcken, written 1892)

“[A Minorite] Convent-farm was leased to one Goodman, from whom ‘Goodman’s Fields,’ ‘Goodman’s Stile,’ and ‘Goodman’s Yard’ take their names.” (Walks in London, 1878)

Rich G | Homepage | 21.02.22 - 10:00 a.m. | #

I confess to being baffled by "wives hurling keys down from balconies" unless it's to husbands/children who have forgotten or can't be trusted with their own key. If I ever tried that the key would inevitably end up wedged somewhere inaccessible!

Andrew S | 21.02.22 - 10:13 a.m. | #

GOOGLE Earth Street View shows a fish and chips shop at the junction of Whitechapel High Street and Osborn Street called "Jack the Chipper".

If it's still there, I can't believe you missed making the obvious observation!

dg writes: Still there, but its address is on the A11 not the B134.

John Simmons | 21.02.22 - 10:14 a.m. | #

Brick Lane is always one of those streets I feel I should know a lot better than I actually do!
I'd be hard pressed to pinpoint it on a map, but would at least be looking in the right general area!

Cornish Cockney | 21.02.22 - 2:48 p.m. | #

FYI the Hampton by Hilton is by no means a 5 star brand, the Hampton is Hilton's limited service mid-scale brand (think ibis red / holiday inn express ) not the main "core brand" Hilton, which would even struggle to be called 5 star nowadays.

dg writes: updated, thanks.

Alistair Twin | 21.02.22 - 3:28 p.m. | #

John- the frontage of the old Odeon cinema still survives, and indeed now displays the original name of the cinema- Mayfair.

Jeremy | 21.02.22 - 5:16 p.m. | #

John S - Last time I visited Brick Lane (about 3 years ago) there was also a barbers called 'Jack the Clipper'.

Tony Webster | 21.02.22 - 6:31 p.m. | #

Meantime over in Greenwich they also have a chippy called Jack the Chipper, and never mind that Jack never laid a violent hand on anyone south of the Thames so far as we know.

Klepsie | 21.02.22 - 7:58 p.m. | #

Klepsie: it's another branch of the one on the corner of Osborn Street.

martin | 22.02.22 - 7:01 a.m. | #











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