If you go to Vallance Road just two minutes walk of Brick Lane there's usually skanky hookers who do 20 quid suck and fuck in the dodgy hallways, not too bad when you're coming back home on pills in the wee hours.
I guess they are just overpriced traps for hungry, bewildered tourists.
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My Dad always used to claim they were fronts for Turkish Mafia heroin money laundering. I don't know why he thought that, it's quite a specific accusation.