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The true story of one of the most famous, fashionable and fascinating secrets in London. Extensively researched from a huge range of sources, including long-time and celebrity residents, it's informed by the author's personal associations with the area. It will be followed by books on Hatton Garden and Portobello Road.
Synopsis
A chronicle of one of London's most remarkable streets, Brick Lane. It attempts to bring to life the memories and realities of Brick Lane's many communities, and harnesses the voices of the famous, the infamous and the obscure, merging memoir, reportage, poetry, photography and local history.
Book Details
Publisher:
PENGUIN GROUP
Publication Date:
28-Aug-2008
ISBN:
9780141018515
Guardian review
On Brick Lane
PD Smith the guardian Fri 29 August 2008
Rachel Lichtenstein admits that Brick Lane was "a mythical landscape" for her as a child. She grew up in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex - or Whitechapel-on-Sea, as many of her family's East End friends called it. Her grandparents were Polish-Jewish refugees who opened a jewellers shop at 67 Brick Lane in the 1930s. Her book repopulates that mythical landscape with the Jewish people who used to live in Brick Lane and the Bangladeshi community that now gives the area its unique character. An artist, Lichtenstein has lived and worked there since the 1990s. She weaves together her own experiences with those of her family and interviews with former and current residents, ranging from a Bangladeshi schoolgirl ("Brick Lane is like a part of Bangladesh"), to Iain Sinclair, who used to work in the 300-year-old Truman brewery, and the poet Stephen Watts, who tells her: "There is a tidal wave of sound and memory rushing down that street." The result is a wonderfully evocative and personal portrait. Oral history at its best.
