The Metropolis

The "Brick Lane not Tarmac Lane" cause is ahistorical, sentimentalised guff

Mike Pollitt | Tuesday 14 February, 2012 12:13

_{Brick Lane has about as much historical connection with this guy as it does with its surface}

The ‘Brick Lane not Tarmac Lane’ petition is one of the most ridiculous bandwagons of the year.

It’s absolutely fine that local residents and businesses should raise objections about a lack of consultation. But to complain that the resurfacing threatens “this historic street” is pure cobble cobblers.

Headlines such as:

East London Lines – Olympic Games take the bricks out of Brick Lane
BBC News – Brick Lane’s bricks to be covered over

imply that Brick Lane and its brick surface have some ancestral connection, are so deeply entwined, so symbiotically linked, that to have one without the other would threaten the integrity of the street itself. Rubbish. The current brick surface is about a decade old! Some real history:

This street existed under its modern name as early as 1550 when a survey of the Manor of Stepney mentions two tile garths on its eastern side. (ref. 1) These were places either where clay was dug to make tiles or perhaps where brick-earth was dug. In Agas’s map of c. 1560–70 Brick Lane is shown, apparently quite without buildings. [British History Online]

And what’s this?

In 1772, Commissioners were appointed with power to pave certain streets in Spitalfields and all of Brick Lane within and without the parish. [Ibid]

Roads get resurfaced. Different materials get used at different times. It’s still the same street. The decision to lay the existing bricks down in the first place can be seen as a ridiculous and sentimentalised attempt to fit the surface to the name, one which is now being corrected.

Argue against the lack of consultation, or the fact that the plans privilege cars over pedestrians, by all means. But appeals to history and character have absolutely nothing to do with either.

Petition – Brick Lane not Tarmac Lane!
British History Online – Brick Lane
Snipe – Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city’s self-esteem

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