London Borough of Tower Hamlets Islamic centres, including the East London Mosque, Britain's biggest mosque. Brick Lane's restaurants, neighbouring street market and shops provide the largest range of Bengali cuisine, woodwork, carpets and clothes in Europe. A 2017 study by Trust for London and the New Policy Institute found that Tower Hamlets has the highest rate of poverty, child poverty, unemployment, and pay inequality of any London borough. It also found that it has the lowest GCSE attainment gap though, meaning that the gap in performance between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils is lower than in any other London Borough. The local authority is Tower Hamlets
Brick Lane film, Sarah Gavron, attests on the DVD commentary of the film that genuine footage of Brick Lane does appear in the finished movie. Activists told "The Guardian" they intended to burn copies of Ali's book during a rally to be held on 30 July 2006, but the demonstration passed without incident. Other notable books on the area are "Salaam Brick Lane" by Tarquin Hall, "On Brick Lane" (2007) by Rachel Lichtenstein and "An Acre of Barren Ground" by Jeremy Gavron. A large collection of photographs of the characters and sales people who worked the markets in Brick Lane were taken