Brick Lane gets written about a lot, most of it badly. It's either the “curry capital of London” (it isn't, quite, any more) or “gentrified past recognition” (also true, and also not the whole story). What it still is, reliably, is the most layered half-mile in the city: Huguenot weavers, then Jewish bakers, then Bangladeshi restaurateurs, then the galleries and bars that followed everyone else here. You can walk the whole lot in an afternoon.
Start at Shoreditch High Street and head south. The first right after the railway takes you into the Old Truman Brewery — the cluster of Victorian brewery buildings that now houses most of the area's interesting retail. Weekend vintage market upstairs, record shops in the back, and, in the yard, whatever food truck has the longest queue that day. Don't plan this bit. Just wander.
From the brewery, walk north up Brick Lane itself. Resist the curry touts — the honest truth is that Brick Lane is not where you should eat a curry any more; the chefs have mostly moved on. Keep going. At the top, on the corner of Bethnal Green Road, is Beigel Bake. It has been open 24 hours a day since 1974, and a salt beef beigel with mustard is still under seven pounds. This is non-negotiable. Buy one. Eat it standing up.
Then turn back south and pay attention to the walls. The alleyways off Brick Lane — Grimsby Street, Fashion Street, the mews behind Hanbury Street — turn over new street art every few weeks. Some of it's commissioned, most of it isn't; all of it is better experienced by accident than by list. There are Stik figures on Princelet Street that have been there for more than a decade.
Cut west when you hit Fournier Street and you'll emerge at Spitalfields Market. The covered Victorian structure is now half shopping centre, which is a pity, but the independent record stalls and the Sri Lankan curry counter (weekends only) are very much still the point. If you're hungry again, eat here.
End at the Whitechapel Gallery, ten minutes south. After two hours of loudness, the gallery is a cool, quiet room with a good cafe and a bookshop that punches above its weight. It is, I think, the right way to finish a walk through this part of London: on a bench, in a gallery, with something gentle to look at. The contrast is the whole point.
