This article marks a ‘first’ for Peter’s Big Adventure: this was the FIRST time that I tried to upload so many photos at once that SquareSpace cut me off. Apparently the limit for a single-batch upload is 250. 😂
So that should be a good indicator for what is to come.
Today we’re venturing into East London to visit BRICK LANE. In Volume 1 of this series in South London, I spoke to how much walking I had endured in order to piece that article together. At the time, it seemed to me (a recent arrival here) that London’s street art was quite decentralized, but I have been proven wrong many times over since publishing that article. There are dense clusters of murals if you know where to look. And thankfully, I have gotten some good pointers from people who know London a lot better than I do about where to find these clusters. Thanks to Caterina for pointing me in the direction of Brick Lane!
As it turns out, Brick Lane isn’t just some random street. It is actually a bit of a destination unto itself within London. And, unbeknownst to me, every Sunday there is a giant street market that happens here. My visit just so happened to fall on a Sunday, so I walked away perhaps with an inflated sense of how lively Brick Lane is under ‘normal’ circumstances… but that’s okay. I will be returning some Sunday very soon.
In terms of personality, Brick Lane—historically—has been a cultural center for the immigrant community within London originating from the Bay of Bengal region (modern day Bangladesh & West Bengal, India). The street signs are actually in both English and Bengali here! So there’s some interesting cultural history here and a lot of really good Indian and Bangladeshi food. But also, on top of that, there’s also a million cool hipster coffee shops, vintage stores, bars, etc. And in all of the spaces in between, there is a never-ending amount of street art, ranging from giant murals to tiny artistic stickers. Getting all of these pictures in a single walk was quite the undertaking. Normally I’m excited when I turn a corner and see a cluster of amazing murals…. but I must confess, Brick Lane had so many of them that there were moments when I turned a corner to see an alleyway NOT covered in paint… and what I felt was relief. 😅
Here’s a quick index of the 3 galleries that are to come (the links will jump you down the page to the specified section):
Check these out…
WHEW!
That was an exhausting amount of murals.
As always, I have done my best to figure out who is responsible for all of this magic. The artists that I have been able to identify are listed below, but if I have missed anybody, please reach out and tell me! Even if it’s years later, I will go back and update this post to give credit where needed, so don’t hesitate to hit me up.
Abraham.O (@abraham.o1)
Neequaye Dreph Dsane (@dreph_)
Rennatto Ribeiro (@rennattoribeiro)
M.alice (@mariealiceb)
Yorgos (@u.said.it)
Benzi Brofman (@benzi_brofman)
VLAD (@vlad.art5)
vhs.sticks (@vhs.sticks)
insa_gram (@insa_gram)
Reflections on East London…
To end, I’ll attempt to give you a more complete flavor for this part of London by sharing a few images of the areas surrounding Brick Lane. East London has a pretty distinct feel. Compared to the idyllic streets of Notting Hill, East London can feel more like Gotham City sometimes. It was a post-grad program at Imperial College that brought me to London, so most of my day-to-day up to this point has been spent in a borough called South Kensington, which sits alongside Hyde Park. If you’re not familiar with London, there is not a time in living memory where this was not VERY expensive real estate.
East London, on the other hand, is generally much rougher. And while some pockets of it have begun to gentrify thanks to their hipster appeal, other parts of it remain just as gritty as ever. This is not to say that it’s necessarily unsafe per se, but it may feel more threatening at times. Basic street smarts is encouraged.
One of my first trips over here was on a dark fall night to a sketchy area that sits in the limbo between Shadwell and Limehouse… and even before I got off the train, things were already changing quite noticeably. I got onto the DLR line and suddenly everybody around me was much more hip and edgy. When my little brother visited me here, he joked that “everyone in London dresses like they’re in the Matrix”—and that is definitely my memory of this train ride. And the DLR line actually runs above street level, like the trains in Chicago, so you can see out toward downtown London. From this angle, through the dirty train windows, all I could see was a dark, intimidating jungle of towering straight-edged buildings, each a towering, faceless rectangle, obscured in the darkness. It felt a scene from Batman Beyond.
Quick aside: to my fellow American Millennials - does anybody else remember the show Batman Beyond? It was this futuristic cyberpunk version of Batman that ran from like 1998 to 2001. I think about this show at least 1x per month. I think it could be rebooted today for a dark HBO series and do really well…
Anyway, East London always reminds me of this show. So there’s a deep cut from my childhood for you. But convincing you of the parallel here would require very different photo shoot—probably on a dark and stormy night—and that is not high on my to-do list right now. For now, this is what you’ll get instead—a bit of local flavor for you.
The longer I live in London, the easier it is to forget that I also live in England. Of course, the foundations of this magnificent city are rooted firmly in the English identity, but after ruling over 25% of the world for a few hundred years, London has become a much more complicated place that it presumably was in the past. I’m sure the colonizers that once ran this country would be rolling over in their graves if they knew that their terrible global conquest would one day reverse course to see the “English-ness” of their beloved capital city reduced to just one of many ingredients swirling around in the cocktail that is modern London. Truly, I don’t think a more diverse city exists anywhere on earth. The kaleidoscope of languages, skin colors, and cultural identities walking past you on the street is often so complex that it just fades to white noise. And the upshot of that chaotic, beautiful symphony—for me—has been a sense of liberation.
London is a place where you can be anybody that you want to be. There are so many different types of people around you at all times, that you really feel an unnerving sense of freedom. You are free to imagine alternate versions of yourself, and there is no shortage of inspiration on this front! If you see somebody on the tube or on the street who looks completely different from you in every way, but whose style you like, you might be hesitant to explore the possibilities at play. You might look at that person and think “But that is not me. I am X. And they are Y.” Well, if you’re liking what you’re seeing, then I would postulate that, in fact, it IS you! “You” is a more multidimensional concept that you might be comfortable with. And lurking in every darkened alley and crowded tube station in London is the license and freedom to explore all of the many potential versions of “you” that might exist.
And nowhere does the field of possibilities feel greater than in East London. I’m looking forward to spending more time in this part of the city.
In the previous installment on street art in London (volume 1), I said the following:
“When I moved here, it quickly became apparent that London’s many famous murals were not all conveniently located in the same few alleyways as had been the case in some other cities. London was going to make me do some WALKING in order to find its murals. This was a true scavenger hunt.”
Well… I stand corrected! When I wrote that article, I hadn’t yet visited the Leake Street Arches.