Salaam Brick Lane: A Year in the New
East End by Tarquin Hall
A Journalist's Clear Narrative About A Complex World
After 10 years living abroad, Tarquin Hall wanted to return to his native
London. Lured by his nostalgia for a leafy suburban childhood spent in
south-west London, he returned with his Indian-born, American fiancee in
tow. But, priced out of the housing market, they found themselves living
not in a townhouse, oozing Victorian charm, but in a squalid attic above a
Bangladeshi sweatshop on Londons Brick Lane. A grimy skylight provided
the only window on their new world—a filthy, noisy street where drug
dealers and prostitutes peddled their wares and tramps urinated on the
pavements. Yet, as Hall got to know Brick Lane, he discovered beneath its
unlovely surface an inner world where immigrants and asylum seekers
struggle to better themselves and dream of escape. Salaam Brick Lane is
a journey of discovery by an outsider in his own native city.

Personal Review: Salaam Brick Lane: A Year in the New East
End by Tarquin Hall
I ordered "Salaam Brick Lane" after reading and reviewing Tarquin Hall's
new detective novel, "The Case of the Missing Servant". In that book, set
in today's Delhi (both old and New), Hall makes modern day India - both
high and low - come alive, with his wonderful characters and descriptions
of Indian society.
"Salaam" is non-fiction and set in early 2000's London. Hall has returned
home to London, after spending much of his life as a wandering journo in
India and other East Asia countries. Unable to afford a flat in a more
affluent area of London, Hall rents a flat (though more like a pit) in Brick
Lane in the East End of London. This area has been the home of many
ethnic groups who've emigrated to London as a sort of "first stop" on their
way "up" in British society. As each group has abandoned the area, other,
poorer, emigrants have taken their place. The East End (right next to the
City and near the Isle of Dogs) was heavily bombed during WW2.
Today the area is largely populated by Bengali Muslims (from a certain
area in Bengladesh), Indian Hindus, and a scattering of Somalis,
Albanians, and other groups from the old Yugoslavia. Rare are the old
English "cockneys", who lived in the area until the '70's. What is
astounding is the way the Muslims and Hindus seem to get along in the
tight confines of the East End.
Hall's year in the East End is written in a non-sensational way. He finds
friends among all the ethnic groups and seems totally accepted as a fellow
"East Ender". Though the area is fairly poor, most everybody eakes out a
living, some in a more "honest" fashion than others. (Lots of things "falling
off the backs of trucks" in local stores.) Hall and his girlfriend (now wife)
learn a lot in their year in Brick Lane and he explains it all beautifully in his
book.
I'm now waiting for his third (actually his first) book to arrive. It's about a
savage elephant in India. Looking forward to it.
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