SUMMER IN THE CITY
Brick Lane Market, May 2010
Brick Lane is one of 5 huge interconnected markets packing in hundreds of thousands every Sunday in Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest, densest areas in London. A hub of Bangladeshi, creative, and student communities it's said there are more artists living here than anywhere else in the world (though from rising rents seems they've all moved onto Hackney and Berlin). Still, they get lured back every market day.
It's said gritty old London is where
the First World and Third World meet, this would be the epicentre.
Nb: Only Brick Lane Market (junk, stolen goods) and Upmarket (food, crafts and vintage) is covered here - theres also Columbia Rd market (flowers), Whitechapel (Bengali goods), Spitalfields (posh clothes n crafts), Petticoat Lane (cheap tat).
Sit back, play n njoi... Hope you like em
• Video Link
Every Sunday the streets are transformed as thousands set up stalls or bedsheets loaded with tat, second hand clothes, stolen goods, food and art on hundreds of plots.
1991 is BACK
This girl setting up right outside some people's front door
street art everywhere, this the original breeding ground of Banksy way back, and endless imitators (-who really nicked the idea off Paris)
Vying for space and attention so much- they fade into background
Everything's for sale, from junk to karaoke to sex (a red light area operates round the corner)
...and a whole load of streetfood from every conceivable place- Ghanaian, Brazilian, Eritrean, Mauritian, Lao, Peruvian, Russian, Tibetan, Catalan, Kurdish, Grenadan. This is the Japanese octopus ball stall.
by the mid noughties massive bars started opening up in the industrial buildings, and the place got that commercial makeover - the carparks sometimes turn into beaches. This is a big place for drinking (and drugs), so the edge still remains.
[B]