Another bloody Aussie in London

It seems like there is never a good time to move to the UK, especially not since the country has been paralysed by stagnant economic growth and rising unemployment since the financial crisis. The usual question we were asked when we told people of our desire to up stumps to London after our big trip to South America was "why?", quickly followed by taunts of "you don't realise how bad things are over there," and "the Australian economy is booming, so why leave?"

Two things: first, Australia is a microcosm, a tiny market that, although it has a healthy economy, doesn't have the breadth of job prospects in journalism and engineering (mine and Adam's respective professions) than the much larger UK, which lets not forget, is on Europe's doorstep. Second, the Australian economy is booming - if you work in the mining sector, an industry which I have absolutely no desire to cover, but which occupies many column inches in the Australian media. And I have no desire to move to Perth, should Adam wish to work for a resources firm.

We touched down at Luton airport (ironic that it is called "London Luton" because it is in the middle of the countryside), our backpacks stuffed with smelly, falling apart clothes and various souvenirs including Amazonian hammocks, Brazilian sarongs, Guatemalan scarves and Oktoberfest beer steins. Fortunately for us, we both have EU citizenship thanks to our Anglo-Irish heritage. Adam is even luckier to have a British passport because he was born in Peterborough before at the age of two his family embarked on a world odyssey, finishing up in Australia when he was 11.

Another thing that has made settling in much easier are the ranks of Adam's relatives dotted around the UK. Our accommodation anxieties were quelled by an offer to stay with a cousin who lives just to the east of Central London. Whitechapel and Spitalfields, former industrial and warehouse precincts, are better known as the former hangout of bloodthirsty serial killer Jack the Ripper. Part of the council borough of Tower Hamlets (being a stone's throw from the Tower or London), are in the process of being refurbished and renewed with slick warehouse conversions and modern apartment blocks popping up in among tired brick blocks of council flats.

East London has a strong history of migration, having been home to successive intakes of new arrivals for hundreds of years. The Huguenots, a band of French and Flemish protestants, made the area their home in the 1700s. London's Jewish community then settled in the 1800s and established textile factories after the sewing machine was invented. Jewish families have since moved westwards as they became more established, but they left behind clues of their existence, including a row of bagel houses.

Bangladeshis are the latest custodians of the area, and as a sign of the times, the former Spitalfields Great Synagogue now operates as the London Great Mosque. It's focal point is Brick Lane, a long narrow alley clustered with curry houses and supermarkets, where the air is heavy with a heady blend of cumin, garam masala and green chili aromas. Gaudy sari and gold jewellery shops line the surrounding streets, and discount clothes merchants run a labyrinth of stalls on nearby Petticoat Lane.

Whitechapel is also home to a large numbers of Pakistani and Somali residents , as well as the more established afro-Caribbean community. This heady mix gives the area a completely different feel to other parts of the inner city, and the large muslim population means that at times I am the only person on the street not wearing a head covering. Many simply wear a hijab along with their usual Western-style clothing, but it seems like more and more women are now dressing more traditionally, and opting for full face and body covering with garments like the burqa.

Our new view

The city's financial district is just a few blocks west, making Brick Lane and the now trendy enclave of Spitalfields a popular drinking and dining destination for hoards of socially conscious bankers and lawyers, many of whom have eschewed establishment areas of North and West London for a pad in the edgy East End. Thanks to an urban renewal project taking place noisily across the road from the flat, a big ugly brick building that used to serve as RBS's data centre has been demolishished, leaving us with a brilliant view that includes London's controversially iconic office tower known as the Gherkin.