Spitalfields is a dynamic district that has for long been a center for creativity and entrepreneurship. It has been home to French Huguenot silk traders, Irish weavers and Jewish textile workers. Bangladeshi immigrants arrived in Spitalfields in the 1900s and turned the area into London’s capital of curry. This mélange of cultures has helped to establish the thriving culinary and market scene of today.
Get to the heart of the shopping and dining action with a stroll along Brick Lane. This is where the city’s largest Bangladeshi groups converge with a bohemian and offbeat crowd. Street signs are in English and Bengali to reflect the influence of community. Taste delectable Bengali and Indian dishes at the street’s many curry houses.
Come for the Brick Lane Sunday Market, when vendors hawk everything from bric-a-brac to organic cosmetics, secondhand books and vintage clothing. Feast on bagels and dumplings at food trucks and watch street performers. The Old Truman Brewery is the venue for weekly events such as the Backyard Market and Brick Lane Vintage Market.
Quirky boutiques and restaurants await at the Old Spitalfields Market, opened by King Charles I in 1682. The adjacent Spitalfields Market features contemporary designers, innovative chefs and live music. Purchase one-of-a-kind artwork at the monthly Spitalfields Art Market.
Architecture fans will appreciate the baroque-style Christ Church Spitalfields designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The Dennis Severs’ House has rooms furnished to represent life during the 1700s. Open on selected days only, 19 Princelet Street celebrates the area’s varied immigrant groups.
Follow the crowds to Commercial Street for hip coffeeshops, international restaurants and traditional pubs. The Ten Bells has a close association with the serial killer Jack the Ripper. It was a favored haunt of Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly, who were two of his victims.
Spitalfields is less than a 10-minute walk from the Aldgate East, Liverpool Street and Shoreditch High Street underground and train stations. Buses travel here from Central London through the day and night.
