London tube station gets Bengali signage in homage to local community

Whitechapel is home to the largest Bangladeshi community in the UK. (Sadiq Khan/Facebook)

• Around 40% of Whitechapel’s population identify as Bangladeshi
• ‘London’s diversity is our greatest strength’: Mayor Sadiq Khan

LONDON: Bengali writing has been installed on the signage of a London tube station in honor of the area’s sizeable Bangladeshi community.

Whitechapel station in East London has been signposted with both English and Bengali text ahead of Bangladesh’s Independence Day on March 26.

Tower Hamlets council has funded dual-language signs throughout the station as part of wider improvements.

Around 40 percent of Whitechapel’s population identify as Bangladeshi, and the community there has a long history

The famous Brick Lane area became a hotspot for Bengali migration during the 1970s, and has since been referred to by some as Banglatown.

“London’s diversity is our greatest strength,” the capital’s Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote on Facebook. “Ahead of Bangladesh Independence Day, it’s great to see the revamped signs at Whitechapel station — recognising and celebrating the vital contribution Bangladeshi Londoners have made shaping the Tower Hamlets community & our city.”