Shoreditch & Brick Lane: A Guide to East London’s Most Creative Neighborhoods

A SoulMap™ London journey by Penna a Spillo

🗺️📍Follow my SoulMap™ and discover London like a local

🇬🇧 Category: London Neighborhoods

🎨 Walking Through Shoreditch and Brick Lane: A Different Side of London

If you’re wondering where to start to experience London like a local, this is always where I begin in my SoulMap™.

East London, with the neighbourhoods of Shoreditch and Brick Lane, is unmissable: vibrant, colourful, full of creative energy and constantly evolving.

When you come here, you can almost physically feel the cultural and innovative buzz in the air.

It’s not easy to describe, because it’s more of a feeling than anything else, but it probably comes from the constant flow of people arriving from all over the world, gathering in this part of London to create something new, each bringing pieces of their own culture and way of life.

A big part of this feeling comes from the incredible amount and high quality of street art you’ll find here, constantly evolving and, with its bold use of colour, creating a beautiful contrast with the grey sky and the brick buildings (Brick Lane, after all).

My advice for exploring this part of London is to plan your visit carefully, as it’s quite a large area, with many points of interest, but also some more anonymous spots.

Street art isn’t always out in the open and easy to spot; more often, it’s tucked away in side streets and hidden corners, so without a bit of planning, you might end up wandering around without really discovering everything the neighbourhood has to offer.

🧭 My itinerary through Shoreditch and Brick Lane

Before heading out to explore, I put together a fairly detailed itinerary, gathering inspiration from the web, a few blogs I trust, and a wonderful little guidebook I’ve mentioned before called London Villages.

It explores London area by area, focusing on those “villages” that, even though they are now part of the city, still retain their original character and identity.

The first East London itinerary I’m sharing here focuses on Shoreditch and Brick Lane.

Partly because I wanted to concentrate on a specific area and explore it properly, and partly because my exploration time is limited, it usually coincides with school hours for my three little ones (luckily long enough).

I also live on the opposite side of London, and one of the first things I learned after moving here is that getting from one area to another can take about as long as it used to take me to travel between two different cities.

My starting point is Old Street tube station, which leads directly into Shoreditch.

🧭 The Route: From Old Street to Shoreditch High Street

There isn’t a fixed route to follow in Shoreditch; the beauty of this neighbourhood lies in simply wandering through it, soaking in its unmistakably hip, creative atmosphere and discovering the bold colours of its murals standing out against London’s grey sky and the brick buildings, filled with cafés and shops that feel effortlessly styled, each one more artistic than the last.

That said, there are a few streets you really shouldn’t miss: think of a sort of triangle formed by Old Street, Great Eastern Street, and Shoreditch High Street, with three small detours within it, Charlotte Road, Curtain Road, and Rivington Street, as well as, of course, Brick Lane, which I’ll talk about in more detail later on.

This is where you’ll find most of the street art, along with many of the most interesting cafés, shops, and creative spots in the area.

To give you a practical reference, the photos below follow exactly the route I walked, so you can easily recreate a similar itinerary.

This is the first stretch of the walk, between Old Street and Great Eastern Street.

And this is Rivington Street.

🎨 Shoreditch Street Art and Original Banksy Murals

As is often the case, many street art pieces are slightly hidden in side alleys or recessed parts of the street, but finding them isn’t that difficult; you just need to explore a little to the right and a little to the left.

This is the famous “Scary” writing, located in a rather narrow underpass on Rivington Street.

This area was also home to the historic nightclub Cargo, now closed and replaced by a restaurant/bar/lounge called The Viaduct, offering casual dining, craft beers, and cocktails.

In its outdoor courtyard (clearly visible from the street), there is an authentic Banksy mural, which you can see in the photo below.

Even though the Cargo venue in Shoreditch is now permanently closed and replaced by a new restaurant, the courtyard still hosts two original Banksy works, Guard Dog and His Master’s Voice, protected by plexiglass panels.

These remain a must-see stop for street art enthusiasts.

Further along, you arrive at Shoreditch High Street, a bustling and vibrant street with occasional views of the City’s towering skyscrapers

Near Shoreditch High Street, don’t miss Whitby Street, a charming lane where the houses are completely covered in colour, perfect for photography.

🛍️ Old Spitalfields Market: A Vintage Haven

Right here, between Shoreditch and Brick Lane, you’ll find one of London’s most famous vintage markets: Old Spitalfields Market.

It’s an indoor market, featuring stalls of all kinds and plenty of food options. At lunchtime, it’s especially popular with City workers who flock here for their lunch break.

Each day of the week has its own speciality: antiques on Thursdays, fashion on Fridays, vintage and design on Saturdays, and a little bit of everything on Sundays, with around a hundred stalls that are constantly changing.

Like all London markets, it’s full of interesting things to discover, constantly changing, so it’s rare to come across the same item twice.

London’s markets are charming because London itself is charming.

The items you find here are part of the city’s history and its people, who have always been creative and original.

Here’s the address (link to the map):

📍 Old Spitalfields Market 16 Horner Square London, E1 6EW

I could spend entire afternoons browsing these stalls, which remind me of my beloved Sunbury Antique Market.

🥨 Brick Lane: Culture, Street Food, and Ever-Changing Canvas

Just a few steps from Old Spitalfields Market, you arrive at one of the most famous and lively parts of East London: Brick Lane.

Ideally, it’s best to visit on the weekend, especially Sunday morning, when the street comes alive with a fantastic open-air market offering mainly vintage clothing, retro items, design pieces, and ethnic food. Even during the week, however, Brick Lane’s charm remains intact.

First of all, the street itself is stunning, lined with those iconic brick buildings (hence Brick Lane), home to an incredible number of shops, businesses, atmospheric hipster bars, and every imaginable form of artistic expression.

Once again, the most beautiful thing is the neighbourhood’s atmosphere, a unique mix of colourful buildings and people, sounds, and scents that define a street or even an entire area more than anything else.

The former home of Truman’s beer, the Old Truman Brewery, has been transformed into a space for artistic and cultural events. It also hosts the Brick Lane Vintage Market, one of the coolest spots for vintage shopping in London.

Then there’s the famous Bagel Bake, perhaps the most well-known bagel shop in London, open 24 hours a day.

As you walk along Brick Lane, make sure to explore all the side streets, because that’s where the most beautiful murals can be found.

Be sure to check out Fashion Street, Cheshire Street, Fournier Street, and the most stunning of them all, Hanbury Street.

📸 The Talking Walls

My tour ends at Aldgate East Tube Station, where you can catch the District Line back toward central London.

Of course, the route can easily be done in reverse, from Aldgate East to Old Street, passing by Old Spitalfields Market along the way.

One of the things I love most about East London street art is how constantly it changes. Every time I visit, even just a few weeks later, the murals are completely different.

Actually, the photos you take here are real treasures; they’re unique moments captured in time that will never be repeated.

And of course, this is just a taste of East London; the list of things to see and do in this part of the city is endless.

If you have an Instagram account, follow my page @pennaaspillo for many more photos of London and East London.

In my Highlights Stories, I’ve saved a series of routes with all the directions to map out the murals.

📌 Shoreditch & Brick Lane at a Glance: 6 Unmissable Experiences

👉 Discover more

Did you enjoy exploring East London with me?

If you want to discover other neighbourhoods in London, check out:

• Camden Town: London’s Rock and Alternative Soul
• The Ultimate Soho London Guide: What to do & hidden gems
• For information on London’s markets, you can download my FREE London Markets Guide.
• If you’d like a practical, pocket-sized guide to take with you on your trip and explore London “like a Londoner,” check out my book: Alessandra in London
• And don’t forget to subscribe to the Penna a Spillo monthly newsletter for all the latest news on events, exhibitions, and unusual spots in London and beyond. With an open rate of over 60%, it has become a trusted resource for those curious about London who want to stay up to date.