Brick Lane

Brick Lane (Bengali: ব্রিক লেন) is a street in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of Osborn Street. Today, it is the heart of the city's Bangladeshi-Sylheti community and is known to some as Banglatown. It is famous for its many curry houses.

Early history

15th to 18th centuries

Winding through fields, the street was formerly called Whitechapel Lane. It derives its current name from brick and tile manufacture started in the 15th century, which used the local brick earth deposits. and featured in the 16th century Woodcut map of London as a partially-developed crossroad leading north from the city's most easterly edge. By the 17th century, the street was being developed northwards from the Barres (now Whitechapel High Street) as a result of expanding population.

E postcode area

Postcode district boundaries: Bing / Google

The E (Eastern) postcode area, also known as the London E postcode area, is the part of the London post town covering much of the eastern part of Greater London, England and also Sewardstone in Essex. Since the closure of the East London mail centre during the summer of 2012, inward mail for the E postcode area is now sorted at Romford Mail Centre, with the IG and RM postcode area mail.

Postal administration

The current E postcode area was originally formed in 1866 as a merger of the E and NE areas created in 1858. In 1917, the postal districts were numbered alphabetically by their location; the districts usually cover a wider area than their names might suggest. As of 2004, the district names do not form part of the postal address. Due to high demand, sector 9 of the E1 postcode district was split and recoded in 1999 to create an E1W postcode district around Wapping; the rest of the district did not gain an additional character. Where districts are used for purposes other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs, E1 and E1W continue to be classed as one "district". The E postcode area contains two non-geographic postcode districts for high-volume business users, E77 and E98.

London

London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. It was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1.12-square-mile (2.9 km²) medieval boundaries and in 2011 had a resident population of 7,375, making it the smallest city in England. Since at least the 19th century, the term London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms Greater London, a region of England governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The conurbation also covers two English counties: the small district of the City of London and the county of Greater London. The latter constitutes the vast majority of London, though historically it was split between Middlesex (a now abolished county), Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire.

Brick Lane Market

Brick Lane Market is a London market centred on Brick Lane, Tower Hamlets in east London. It is located at the northern end of Brick Lane and along Cheshire Street, in the heart of east London's Bangladeshi community. It operates every Sunday from around 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Almost anything can be found on Brick Lane, from antique books to eight-track cartridge decks (for many years it hosted a stall selling nothing but rusty cog wheels). There is a possibility of such strange discoveries and it has always been popular with and much photographed by art students. Bargain hunters from across London also value it greatly.

History

Early history

The Truman Markets originally developed in the 17th century as a lone farmers' market that was held on Sundays due to religious observances by the area's then-prolific Jewish community. During the 20th century, the Brick Lane area experienced an influx of Bangladeshi immigrants who transformed the marketplace. Even today, Brick Lane is very famous for its curry houses.

Lane

In the context of traffic control, a lane is part of a carriageway (roadway) that is designated for use by a single line of vehicles, to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each direction, separated by lane markings. On multilane roadways and busier two-lane roads, lanes are designated with road surface markings. Major highways often have two multi-lane roadways separated by a median.

Some roads and bridges that carry very low volumes of traffic are less than 15 feet (4.6 m) wide, and are only a single lane wide. Vehicles travelling in opposite directions must slow or stop to pass each other. In rural areas, these are often called country lanes. In urban areas, alleys are often only one lane wide. Urban and suburban one lane roads are often designated for one-way traffic.

Capacity

Lane capacity varies widely due to conditions such as neighbouring lanes, lane width, elements next to the road, number of driveways, presence of parking, speed limits, number of heavy vehicles and so on - the range can be as low as 1000 passenger cars / hour to as high as 4800 passenger cars /hour but mostly falls between 1500 to 2400 passenger cars / hour.