Spotlight on: Little Istanbul
Age: More than 400 years old. The first Turks to settle in London were former slaves who had been rescued from Spanish ships by English pirates.
Favourite parts of London: Tottenham, Hackney, Stoke Newington and Shoreditch, though there are significant numbers in south and central London as well.
Size: There are at least 200,000 people of Turkish or Turkish Cypriot origin in London according to Home Office estimates.
Let’s talk about something juicier than population figures — döner kebabs.
Döner kebab means “rotating meat” and if the Turks hadn’t brought this hand-held meal to London, thousands of drunken nights out would have ended in hunger and misery.
Where can I get hold of London’s finest kebab? At Dalston’s Mangal Ocakbasi. This popular charcoal grill and bring-your-own restaurant has been knocking them out for more than 20 years.
What about my resolution to balance decadent evenings with healthy activities? You can sweat all your indulgences away at the Turkish baths at Camberwell’s Pasha Spa or Bayswater’s Porchester Spa.
And if I want a little more Turkish culture, beyond kebabs and steam?
The London Turkish Film Festival starts on February 21.
I’m not so hot on Turkish literature. Maybe you could recommend something? Try Honour, Elif Shafak’s latest novel. It’s a brilliant London-set Turkish family saga.
Isn’t Shafak the beautiful Turkish novelist who lives in the capital? Yes — and she’s not the only famous Turkish Londoner. The fashion designer Erdem is of Turkish heritage, while Tracey Emin and the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Hussein-Ece have Turkish Cypriot parents.
Haven’t you forgotten someone? That’s right. Boris Johnson — a self-proclaimed “one-man melting pot” whose ancestors include Russian Jews and German royalty — can also claim Turkish heritage. His great-grandfather served under the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
