What are the markers of gentrification?

The 'Save Brick Lane' campaign

The 'Save Brick Lane' campaign was initially started by local residents who got together to oppose council-approved development plans by the Truman Brewery to build a shopping mall in the heart of Brick Lane.

This was seen by locals to be a major threat to the vibrant community that has lived there for generations.

Residents feared that the plans would ultimately drive up house prices, push out independent businesses and ruin the culture that exists - particularly among the working class and ethnic minority communities.

The aim of the campaign was to create resistance against gentrification and preserve the history of the communities who have existed in this space over the centuries.

Jonathan Moberly, Chair of the East End Preservation Society said: "The Save Brick Lane campaign has been really effective, much more than the Bishops Gate Goodyard campaign in making local voices heard.

"I think that's partly because we have managed to engage very well with the Bangladeshi community but it's also partly branding.

"Brick lane is such an iconic thing in people's minds."

Brick Lane is currently home to a large Bangladeshi community and a number of Bangladeshi run businesses have been thriving in the area since around 1970.

The East End Preservation society are a small group of local people who are concerned about development and heritage issues in the East End.

Individually, they have each been involved in different campaigns and often come together to help when new issues come up, guiding campaigners and helping them deal with the authorities.

The Save Brick Lane campaign was championed by a coalition of seven different groups who are each fighting with a shared goal in mind - for the redevelopment plans of the Old Truman Brewery to be unsuccessful.

Nijjormanush, The East End Preservation Society, Spitalfields Trust, East End Trades Guild, House of Annetta, Bengali East End Heritage Society and Spitalfields Life/ The Gentle Author helped the 'Save Brick Lane' campaign gain over 7,000 objections.

This was enough for the campaigners to be granted judicial review for which we will hear the outcome in March 2023.

Dr Fatima Rajina, co-founder of Nijjormanush said that, for them: "As much as Brick Lane has a huge significance and is a landmark for many Bengalis, there are non-Bengalis who live in the area and have also been there for decades.

"People from East London Preservation Society are literally people who live on Brick Lane.

"The skills they bring in, them growing up in the area and their knowledge of the history of the area has definitely helped and made the campaign even more powerful than if it was just Nijjormanush - it wouldn't have gained half the traction."

She added: "When you're trying to run a campaign and you want it to gain traction and have momentum, the more of a solid coalition you have on the ground the better."

The history of Brick Lane

Jamme Mosque located on Fournier Street in Brick Lane is symbolic of the rich history that the area holds.

The building is a Grade II listed building and much like the rest of Brick Lane tells the tale of migrant communities that have utilised the space for different reasons.

This is particularly embodied by the Latin inscription written above a sundial on the building's exterior that reads 'Umbra Sumus'. This translates to 'We Are Shadows' which many say in itself considers all of the people that it has catered to throughout the years.

The building was first used in 1743 as a Protestant Chapel, known as the 'Neuve Eglise' (New Church) for the Huguenot silk weavers who arrived in the late 1600's when fleeing religious persecution in France.

In 1809 it became an Evangelical chapel promoting Christianity amongst the Jews and ten years after that it became a Methodist Chapel.

In the 19th century more recently, it became a Synagogue and remained so until the Jewish population of Spitalfields began migrating to north London after the Second World War.

Following Bangladesh's war for independence, Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh and east India then began to move into the area and the building which had closed, re-opened as a mosque at the end of the 1970s and continues to serve a large Bangladeshi community today.