brick lane curry houses threatened by new legislation

In the latest move towards an ever more draconian London, Tower Hamlets have announced that they are bringing in new legislation to force restaurants to stop serving food by 12 midnight, and potentially wiping out the scores of curry houses along Brick Lane and it’s immediate vicinity in the process.

With the restaurants on Brick Lane doing a large part of their business between midnight and 2am (and what’s wrong with that?), the owners have claimed that these new regulations will make carrying on business in the area non viable.  

Along with steep rent rises in recent years, this latest setback for the owners of the curry houses seems to some like the continuation of a social cleanse of the area – with stores/restaurants and new businesses in the area catering to a more middle class clientel in what’s been called a ‘super-gentrification’.

In 2005 there were 50 Anglo-Bangladeshi restaurants on and around Brick Lane – but that figure has been in steep decline ever since, with upmarket bistros and boutiques increasingly filling the void.