The city of London is full of history and is home to many different cultures. In a corner tucked away in East London is a street called Brick Lane. It is a bustling street filled with restaurants, vintage shops, and history. I got the chance to see a small part of Bengali culture in the heart of East London. This part of the city is often referred to as Banglatown. There is lots of Bangladesh pride here in the signs and even the red and green lampposts. This area is the hotspot for British-Bengali identity. There have been migrations of Bengals to this area starting around the 17th century.  It was a refugee place for Bengals trying to seek a better life. We also learned about how sailors working on East India Company trading ships sailed to Britain and decided to stay while other sailors were simply left here with no way to return home to India. The peak of Banglatown is thought to be around the early 2000s. There was an idea to make it similar to Chinatown in a social and economic sense. More importantly, the local Bengalis wanted a place where they could share their culture and make it feel like home. There were as many as sixty curry houses on Brick Lane. Since then it has been on the decline. Due to Covid-19 and rent increases many curry houses and other Bengal businesses have been forced to shut their doors. When I visited it was interesting to see restaurant owners standing on the street trying to drum up businesses by asking people if they wanted to dine in their restaurant for dinner. Our class ate at a wonderful curry house called Sheba. It had many traditional Indian dishes and drinks to choose from. I ordered the chicken tikka masalas and it did not disappoint. However, my dish was much sweeter than anticipated. It was interesting to see that some dishes have adapted a more Anglo-Indian way to accommodate British taste such as lowering the spice levels.

Unfortunately, the further down Brick Lane you walked the more obvious the gentrification became. Particularly when you hit the Truman Brewery there is a sharp distinction between the original Banglatown and the newly gentrified part of town. Truman Brewery and other nightclubs such as Vibe used to bring young tourists into Banglatown and give good business. However, since the closing of Vibe and redevelopment of the brewery, businesses have been dwindling. The north end of Brick Lane had no Bengal culture markers and was more like the rest of London. I also noticed there were little to no Bengali people in the new area, it was mostly young white people. These new trendy restaurants are tough competition for the traditional Bengal restaurants down at the south end. The local council is also being blamed for not doing much to promote Bangaltown.  Bangladesh residents have been slowly leaving the area for years. Therefore, Bengali activists now have to try that much harder to preserve the culture they have left in this sacred area.