Before anyone comes at me - I am a dual British/Canadian (ethnically half Pakistani, half Indian woman) who has lived in the UK for over a decade and a half, most of that time in East London. I'm simply sharing my thoughts and asking questions based on my current lived experience in the area, and from the cultural background I have from my own upbringing.
I have lived in Shoreditch/Whitechapel for around 8 (non consecutive) years. There's no argument that Shoreditch has gentrified - for better or for worse depending on how you feel about gentrification - but the endless amounts of coffee shops, restaurants, and hipsters attest to that fact. Yes the area has gotten more expensive as a result, but it also feels a lot safer and generally cleaner. Then you have Whitechapel.
Whitechapel reminds me of my traumatic summers at my grandmother's house in India, which was - to quote my own mother's words - "in a shithole town." Open gutters. Rubbish everywhere. Hoards of men just hanging out on the street at all hours. The pollution. The filth. The noise. The areas outside of Whitechapel station and neighbouring streets are exactly like that - litter everywhere, grimy corner/ shops with signs written entirely in Bengali, "travel agencies" which are not at all travel agencies or even open at all - just derelict buildings and shop fronts left to rot. It's literally like the mini India hellscape of my childhood. Don't get me started on Whitechapel market. The amount of daily rubbish left behind at the end of the day insane. Just over the weekend, I saw a man with a small child asking him to spit out his cough on the street - excuse me?! I literally stopped them and said no, we don't spit on the street here. If you need to cough something up carry a tissue and dispose of it in the bin. People may do that in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh but we sure as hell don't do it in Toronto where I grew up, nor in my opinion should it be done in London. It's absolutely disgusting, and just people most people around you may do it, doesn't give you the right to turn that area into the same slum.
As a brown woman, I often get a lot of side-eye from people in Whitechapel because I dress in a Western way and am not religious. On the occasions people speak in Hindi, I can understand the snide comments they make about me, so more than once I've heard people comment about how it was disgraceful that I was in 'revealing' clothing and that I should cover up. A few summers ago I went for a run in a sports bra and shorts, only to be stopped by a very old Bangladeshi man who told me that this was a "muslim area" and that I "can't wear that". I soundly told him to F straight off, and that if he talked to me again I'd be calling the police. It's absolute insanity to me that anyone - no matter where they're from - can consider coming to another country and tell people how to dress or behave as per the country they left. I've only been to Pakistan once with my dad where I was fully covered up. Summer and 45 degrees. Do I agree with it? No, but I did it because those the the rules of that country. I didn't parade around in short shorts because that's not what you do there. There is however, no such law or cultural norm in England, so no, I shant be covering up here.
Many people from many different countries have added rich contributions to Western countries. They've managed to do this in a way that preserves their culture, whilst also including people outside of that group. Do only Chinese people go to Chinatown? No, it's open to anyone from anywhere. Do only Indians eat at Indian restaurants? No. Yet in Whitechapel, all of the small dilapidated shops have the air of being so off-putting to anyone else that only other Bengalis would go there. Not just that, but the overall vibe created in Whitechapel is just disgusting. Why would you want to live in that filth? Why would you leave one country due to its problems only to recreate a lot of those same problems in the new place? I actually think a lot of Bengali restaurants /shops are missing a big trick here - if they cleaned up (literally) and started marketing towards other audiences, they'd actually see an improvement in footfall and sales. Take Tayyabs for example - a Pakistani restaurant who have in my view, struck the perfect balance - they've stayed true to their principles (they don't sell or serve alcohol) but allow their clientele to bring their own. The restaurant is clean, popular, and caters to everyone. Another great example is Momlette. Full English Breakfast with a Bengali twist. Perfect fusion, all cultural appreciation on both sides.
There is one independent coffee shop that I know of in the thick of Whitechapel that I literally think of as a "whyte person magnet." It's clean, and friendly, with good food and coffee. And it's actually so funny to see the almost exclusively white clientiele. I often see them and wonder where they live, because I certainly don't see a lot of caucasian people walking around Whitechapel neighbourhoods. We could have more of those types of all-inclusive coffee shops rather than the decrepit "BEX COFFEE" which has already changed names/hands twice from what I can see. There's a reason why Columbia road, with all of it's cute shops and restaurants, is visited often even outside of the market, whereas a street like Whitechapel high street isn't. It's filthy. It's chaotic. It's not meant for anyone who is not already used to the kind of frenzied dirty market you can see in countries like Bangladesh, India or Pakistan. I also want to be able to leave my home in clothes allowed in the Western world and not have people stare me down or make snide comments about me.
This begs the question: Why? Why hasn't Whitechapel gentrified - or at bare minimum - cleaned up? It's super well located and very central, especially with the Elizabeth Line. It also makes no sense to me because Shoreditch and Hackney - the latter further out than Whitechapel - have by and large cleaned up. So what's stopping Whitechapel? Why is it such a shithole compared to the areas around it? You can literally see the moment when Whitechapel transforms from grossness into decency - the intersection is Whitechapel High St and Osborn St (which is Brick Lane). The shops after that become more mainstream, cleaner, nicer. I don't think we can or should blame religion entirely for the state of Whitechapel. There are plenty of Turkish / Arabic areas / restaurants in London which are perfectly nice and open to all. Whitechapel seems to exist in isolation where an invisible barrier seems to prevent it from cleaning up/gentrifying, but all that does is allow its own condition to deteriorate as the people who live there seem perfectly content to turn into its own mini slum.
This is not meant to be a hateful post at all. However as someone who (half) comes from this culture, it's important that we be able to call out the actions of our own kinsmen. No one culture is perfect, they all have ugly sides. Hate is not acceptable; having spent time in Whitechapel though, I totally understand why someone would look at me, and my skin colour, and dislike me or wish for me not to be here. Many of the people in this area who look like me are happy to litter, spit, or tell people to cover up. That's not okay. We wouldn't accept a bunch of Americans to move into an area of London and then try to advocate for the right to carry. Those don't reflect the laws of England, and it's wrong to try to force people to live to your own religious/culture standards if you are outside of that country no matter where you are from.
ETA: It's not racist to want the people who look like you, and sometimes represent you (whether you want them to or not), to learn by example and do better. It's okay - necessary even - to look inwards at those facets of culture that you know have no place in another society. Some 'traditions' are best left behind. I'm asking for a clean, safe environment where men and women are treated equally and don't desecrate the areas in which they live, or harass people (mainly women).
brought it up on his podcast and used it for the usual angloids suffah segment, but personally I feel that denouncing dirty rotten traitors
, but gradually this became more cool.