A Taste of London's East End FEATURE

The Brick Lane Beigel Bake in London's East End is a small reminder of the area's once vibrant Jewish community. With its now thriving Bangladeshi and Bengali communities, this part of the East End is a celebration of tastes, smells, colours and cultures.

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The Brick Lane Beigel Bake in London's East End is a small reminder of the area's once thriving Jewish community. Nowadays, anyone strolling along Brick Lane will be met with the vibrant colors and aromas of the Bengali and Bangladeshi communities that have moved into the area: Brick Lane is now known as Banglatown and there's no shortage of reasonably priced and very good curries on offer in Brick Lane today. But the Brick Lane Beigel Bake is still the place where you'll find the more discerning bagel lovers -- as well as the tourists and the locals.

As one might expect in London's East End, there are no frills about the Brick Lane Beigel Bake; there's also no leisurely eating of your bagel there, at least not inside the bakery as there's no seating. But once they've tasted the bagels, people soon forget about the lack of seating and are lost in the taste, devouring their bagels straight out of their brown paper bags as they walk along the surrounding streets. Understandably, there's always a line-up (the bagels are very good!), especially at about 2am when the nearby bars and clubs close and the chain of customers snakes round the bakery's interior and extends outside. There's also a great atmosphere, with an eclectic mix of customers: tourists and old Jewish local residents mingle with party revelers. As well as bagels and curries, Brick Lane is home to some of London's trendiest clubs and bars and is always throbbing with London's hippest folk, especially in the early morning hours (the Beigel Bake is open 24/7).

Not only does the Brick Lane Beigel Bake sell great bagels (and cheesecake apparently), it's also a much-loved East End institution. It's one of only a few reminders of the area's Jewish past, when in the late 19th century, Brick Lane saw an influx of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, leading to the emergence of a rich Yiddish culture in the area with its own newspapers and theaters. As the Jews became wealthier, however, they moved from Brick Lane to Hendon, Golders Green, and other London suburbs, and today, of the 150 synagogues that once stood in the East End, only four remain. Little of the Jewish past exists in Brick Lane itself, except for the famous bagel bakery at number 159, and its sister bakery at number 155.

Bagels aside, come to Brick Lane on a Sunday morning and you'll get to see true East End London in all its glory: Brick Lane Market. This chaotic market, which opens early Sunday mornings until 2pm, is somewhere between jewel and junk heaven. This is one of those markets at which you never know what you might find. Young Londoners come to buy second hand furniture and unusual clothing, and finish off their afternoon with a curry in one of the many restaurants or a drink on the patio of a nearby bar. And while there may be a lot of junk at this market, it's the sort of place where you just might find a treasure.

And if there's nothing in particular you want to find then come to Brick Lane just to give your senses a treat. It's a glorious mix of sights, smells, sounds, and cultures that shows London off to its best.

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