East London is looking up

LONDON - It was called "outcast London" for its squalid slums in Victorian times, has a dubious reputation as the haunt of Jack the Ripper, and one of Britain's most polluted rivers runs through its long-derelict shipyards and warehouses.

It's no wonder that for a long time, east London has been all but ignored by tourists who stick to the West End, the home of blockbuster musicals, royal palaces, Harrods, and Oxford Street.

This year, those prejudices are likely to change as the Olympics inject huge investments into changing the face of the East End.

Massive redevelopment works in the area have already given it a dramatic makeover. In Stratford, a former marsh and one of the city's poorest areas, a pristine Olympic Stadium, a gigantic new shopping mall, and upgraded train links are already in place. In less than six months, there will be cycle paths, green spaces, and cleaned-up riverbanks.

All that will bring new interest to a part of London that, though long neglected, has recently become recognized for growing its own elite fashion, arts, and high-tech business communities.

And so, if Brick Lane is the farthest east you have ever ventured, now is the time to visit the city's fastest-changing corner.

What's to see? Wander northeast up to the Shoreditch and Dalston areas for their weekend markets, vibrant nightlife, diverse ethnic cuisine, and trendy vintage shops.

The area's lower rents have long attracted young artists and musicians - although in recent years gentrification has raised property prices, drawn in celebrities and hipsters, and pushed struggling artists to seek out warehouse spaces still farther east.

Even so, there is still a bohemian, appealingly scruffy vibe about the place. Unlike in the West End, development in the east has been uneven and spontaneous.

The Olympic Games will definitely bring new tourist traffic to the neighborhood - though many locals weren't sure if they liked the idea.

"Don't care about it," Speedie Gazelle said of the Olympics. Gazelle, who owns a small shop selling what he calls "retro kitsch," wants his area to stay "fashionable, but not touristy," like New York's Lower East Side in the mid-'90s.

One of the biggest obstacles to visiting the east used to be the lack of easy public transport connections to central London.