Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
STREET ART ON HANBURY STREET, OFF BRICK LANE
The East End
The districts of Whitechapel and in particular Spitalfields, within sight of the
City's skyscrapers, represent the old heart of the East End. If you visit just one
part of East London, it should be this neighbourhood, which preserves
mementoes from each wave of immigration. Most visitors come for the
nightlife that has evolved around Brick Lane and Shoreditch, and for the
Sunday markets: Spitalfields for fashion and food; Petticoat Lane for cheap
clothes; Brick Lane for fashion, accessories and music; Columbia Road for
flowers and plants. Further afield, the East End only repays selective
sightseeing since Victorian slum clearances, Hitler's bombs and postwar
tower blocks have left large areas looking bleak. Of course the one part of
the East End that has been totally transformed is the lower Lee Valley, a
former industrial area, now home to the Olympic Park.
