May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Ahmed Hassan says you'd have to be crazy to visit the illegal shisha dens that operate in the basements of some cafes along London's Edgware Road.

``There's no fresh air, it's full of smoke,'' said Hassan, 27, a London-based recruiter for financial firms that do business in the Middle East. ``Who'd want to go to a place like that?''

England's smoking ban has robbed London's ``Little Cairo'' of its star attraction: shisha, the water-pipe smoked throughout the Middle East. That threatens the neighborhood's night life, which thrived on people from Arab and Persian backgrounds, for whom communal shisha smoking is an important social rite, and young people from other communities who came to sample the pipes.

Before the ban took effect last July, 66 cafes along the half-mile stretch of Edgware Road offered shisha. Ten have since closed and others are struggling to survive.

``Edgware Road was the place to smoke shisha,'' said 22- year-old Canzy El-Gohary. ``It was always busy. Now it's dead.''

Arabs started moving to Edgware Road in the late 19th century as Britain expanded trade with the Middle East.

Today, about two-thirds of the restaurants and shops in the area target Middle Eastern tastes, and the only pub, the Old English Gentleman, sells shisha pipes. More than 60 percent of school children in the borough of Westminster speak a first language other than English, with Arabic, Farsi and Kurdish among the 10 most common languages, according to the local government.

``This is a wonderful part of multicultural Britain where you have lots of people who come and smoke shisha in these cafes,'' said John Chalcraft, a lecturer in Middle Eastern history at the London School of Economics. ``You discuss politics, you watch football, you play backgammon, you relax, you meet friends.''

2,500-Pound Fine

England banned smoking in public places on July 1 of last year. Lawmakers rejected exemptions for businesses that cater to smokers, leading to the closure of cigar bars and new rules for private clubs. Establishments that break the law face a 2,500- pound ($5,000) fine.

Shisha can still be enjoyed outside, but bad weather and limited seating has put off tourists and locals visiting the half-mile stretch of Edgware Road known as Little Cairo. While some cafes operate underground shisha parlors, the illegal smoking dens don't have the same social atmosphere.

Saman Ziaie, a 21-year-old student, tried covert smoking but didn't like it. The basement he visited was designed in a vaguely Arab style and there was no ventilation.

``It wasn't nice,'' he said. ``You may as well buy your own and smoke it at home.''

Smoking Raids

And there's the danger of raids by inspectors sent by Westminster City Council to enforce the smoking ban.

``One time I was down there and the guy comes down screaming,'' Hassan said. ``We had to get out and they smuggled the shishas away.''

The council is taking one shisha nightclub to court for flouting the ban, and two more have been threatened with prosecution, said Oliver Finegold, a spokesman for the Westminster council.

``We're not aware of any serious impact on the shisha bars along the Edgware Road, which was one of the fears of the community,'' Finegold said. ``Businesses across the city have simply adapted.''

Mohamed Bakr, manager of Shishawy, the biggest shisha cafe on Edgware Road, said it may be time to return to Egypt. There is no longer a line outside the cafe, and the bustle on neighborhood sidewalks has disappeared, the 29-year-old said.

``It's going bankrupt,'' Bakr said. ``I tried to concentrate more on the food, get in more chefs, but you don't make any profit.''

`Vibe Has Changed'

Shafique Muhammad, 29, manager of Riteway Foods grocery store, said the ban has reduced his sales by at least 40 percent.

``People came for the shisha,'' he said. ``The people who came to smoke, they spent on other things as well.''

Shisha sessions last as long as 90 minutes, with a group of smokers sharing a single pipe as they talk, eat and drink. Popular tobacco flavors include double apple, grape and strawberry.

Water-pipe users face similar risks to cigarette smokers because the smoke contains the same toxins known to cause lung cancer and heart disease, according to the World Health Organization.

Zeeshan Chaudhri, a 25-year-old property developer, said the joy of shisha is to socialize and meet friends. Hiding kills that communal aspect, he said.

``It's not the same atmosphere,'' Chaudhri said. ``The vibe on Edgware Road has changed.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 15, 2008 19:01 EDT