A love letter to London’s Brick Lane

Through the glass front of Graam Bangla restaurant I watch elderly Bangladeshi men shuffling towards the large wooden doors of Brick Lane Mosque in east London ahead of the sunset prayer. The shiny minaret is a silver cylinder of Islamic geometry lit in glowing pinks, reds and yellows. It might be the coolest one in Britain. It’s a modern addition to a building that dates from the 18th century and began life as a Protestant chapel, before becoming a synagogue then, finally, a mosque. All…