Markets and Street Life, London

4 more images

Borough Market is one of London's most well known and historic produce markets. There has been a market on this site since the Romans. During the week it sells to the food industry, but on Saturdays it is open to the general public and is popular with restauranteurs, gourmets, locals, trendys and tourists.

You can buy all kinds of fabulous food here, bread, cheese, meat (you will find boar meat sausages, rabbit, venison burgers etc etc... ) as well as fish, oysters, and all kinds of fruit and veg as well as cakes and sweets and chutnies and oooohhhh the list is endless and you won't leave empty handed. Almost every stall has a taster plate, where you can try a bit of sausage or cheese or bread or whatever before you buy, but you won't be disappointed, the quality of produce available here is superb.
Be warned though, just about everything on sale here is made, grown, produced by the traders themselves and they come from all over the country to sell, these are not supermarket prices. It's not cheap, but you won't find better quality anywhere else in the UK.

Towards the end of the day some of the fruit and veg is sold off cheaply, it's worth hanging on.

The website is fantastic, check it out for more details.

4 more images

Borough Market is a foodies paradise! This historic market dates back to 43AD, though has only been trading on its current site for around 250 years. The market is filled with stalls selling a huge range of products - a mix of gourmet items and 'ordinary' items. There are a few different sections to the market - Crown Square, the Green Market, the Jubilee Market, and the shops and restaurants which surround the market.

The market is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is a very popular place and is always very crowded, especially on a Saturday. Friday lunch times are also very hectic, with all of the nearby office workers descending on the market to buy their lunch. If you are in the area on a Friday, queue up with the suits and buy your lunch - it may take a while, but it is worth the wait.

Things you can buy/see at the market include:
-the freshest fruit & vegetables
-full range of meat and poultry, including whole (headless) deer caught that morning
-bread, pastries and cakes
-fresh pasta
-cheese, cheese, cheese
-hot meat sandwiches, filled baguettes, excellent coffee
-excellent bacon and other deli products

We have made it our mission to taste-test all of the different chocolate brownies for sale at the market - after extensive research I can report that the best ones actually come from a small shop on Stoney Street (which borders the market), called Konditor & Cook.

Have also had some excellent fresh pasta from the markets, tasty bread and an amazing Treacle Pudding.

Opening hours
Thursdays: 11am to 5pm
Fridays: 12pm to 6pm
Saturdays 9am to 4pm

3 more images

Love Borough Market but don't love the crowds - perhaps Broadway Market is for you! Broadway Market is a farmers market located between Bethnal Green and Hackney, just south of London Fields. It is open from 9am-5pm every Saturday.

Ok, it is tiny compared to Borough, with no where near the selection of goods, but it is growing on a weekly basis and soon they hope to have 120 stalls each week. Even so, we were pleasantly surprised with the selection of goods available, recognising some of the vendors from Borough, and discovering some new ones as well. We found it a lot easier to browse and shop here as there was room to move.

The shops lining the street are also worth a browse. Perhaps you a feeling peckish and have a hankering for a some hot jellied eel, or need to buy a gift, or want to relax in one of the small cafes and watch the market activity.

Broadway Market has a great community feel to it and I know we will venture back again soon - looking forward to seeing it grow and prosper.

The market has been here since 1756 but there has been a market around this site since the 13th century.
You can find a wide range of vegetables, fruits, cheeses, meats, seafoods.
It is faired that it faces extinction from time to time due to developments.
It s situated by london bridge and is open on fridays from 12pm to 6pm and saturdays from 9am to 4pm.

4 more images

Queensway is one of the streets in London which are buzzing with life with lots of shops and bars and the oldest department store in London, Whiteley shopping center (see my tip).

Queensway is in Bayswater so all the surrounding streets are crowded with hotels and guesthouses. I once stayed in Pembridge Palace hotel, which is one block from Queensway (see my tip).

There is an inside market in Queensway, Queensway market, which is quite interesting, I have added photos on the market here. It has got many small stores and even a corridor called Psychic Mew where you can talk to mediums and get tarot and rune readings.
There are not many places in London where you can buy fake brand-names like Dior and Chanel etc. but in this market there is a store which sells only fake brand-name clothes. What I found interesting is that there were so many Russians there and some of the store signs were written in Russian as well. There is a Russian café there and a Mediterranean café, a Brazilian shop, an Afro-market and Arabic stores, so this indoor-market is quite international.

There is almost everything in there, a hairdresser, food-store, jewellers, Internet, electronic repair, a computer market, antique etc. etc. So this makes for an interesting visit and I always check it out when in London.

Feel the need for cheese, actually you'll find an array of delicious foods in this covered market.
Fresh breads, dairy, fruit, vegetables, olives, cold meats, cheese, pastries, herbs, flowers etc etc - I even went past a stall doing stuffed pita bread with chorizo - yummy

The market dates back to the 18th centuary & has been used in several films, Bridget Jone's house was here as was the restaurant of the fight scene. Harry Potter & Lock Stock and 2 smoking barrells.

Beware of walking through here hungry your mouth will be watering for sure. The food is of a high quality but not necessarily "cheap"

The only days the market is on is Friday 12pm - 6pm & Saturday 9am - 4pm

1 more image

Designed by Sir Horace Jones and opened in 1868, this famous London Meat Market gets into action VERY early at around 4am (Mon-Fri) and it is all over by 8am. I visited on a Saturday and it was very quiet with just security staff wandering round. It has recently undergone renovation and looks great.

On this site Queen Mary I had Protestants burned at the stake between 1553 and 1558. Up until around the mid 1800's cattle were still driven here to be slaughtered.

2 more images

A wonderful food market under vaulted iron railway arches by London Bridge station.
Open Fridays aprox 12 noon - 6pm and Saturday 9am -4pm.

This is *the* place for fine organic food. Some of the vegetable stalls have very reasonably priced produce, although this is mainly the luxury end of the market. Shop around a bit and you'll be able to find some bargains. There is also lots of free sampling going on!

I was surprised when I first came here: it is much more like a French or Spanish market than anything in the London I know.

Great for breads, preserves, meat, vegetables, cheese. There's a lovely Spanish deli; a stall selling ostrich meat (take home an ostrich burger?); juice stalls displaying what appears to be grass juice (something horribly healthy no doubt!), and some first class Bakers - I particularly recommend the Chelsea buns.

Lots of little cafes in and around the market - try the one with the barbeque and paella pan outside, along the railings of Southwark cathedral - and a couple of pricy restaurants like 'Roast'.

Nearby, as a respite from shopping, you'll find the wonderful C16th coaching inn (pictured). This is 'the George', 77 Borough High St (it is a little set back from the street in a tiny cobbled alley). The inn was on a coaching route to Canterbury and boasts that Shakespeare and Dickens drank here. It once had 3 galleries, but only the spendid one in my photo remains. And, voted into the top 40 of the 'Beer in the evening' website is the nearby Market Porter

Also nearby - Southwark cathedral, the Golden Hind (the boat in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world), riverside walks, the ruins of Winchester Hall.

3 more images

update, April 2011.

I like to try and keep my tips up to date so here is the latest news. If you want to get to see Whitchapel Market, you had better be quick. Information from a well-informed friend of mine is that the market is being closed and relocated to the Middlesex Street area. The reason? you won't believe this but our local street market, which has been there for many decades, is being removed so they can build a cycle lane for visitors to the 2012 Olympics.

This makes me incandescent with rage. I do not know a single Londoner who actually wanted the Olympics in the first place, I certainly didn't. We are all paying a fortune via our Council Tax for facilities none of us will ever use, all so some politicians and "worthies" could indulge in their usual self-aggrandisement.

The major road junction to the East of the market is also now closed to pedestrians without a huge detour so I had to escort a 91 year old lady I know home the other day as she was terrified to try and negotiate it. Why? So a few people, and it will be a few people, can cycle happily to a two week event. This is clearly ridiculous. The so-called "legacy", new jobs etc. are a joke.

OK, end of rant, but get to the market soon before it dies to enhance the "green" credentials of a few people.

Whilst there has been a market on Whitechapel Road for many, many years, like most things it changes all the time. I know the market was initially fruit and vegetable based but now it is very diverse, and in many respects reflects the very multicultural nature of the local area. I hope the photo gives some sense of this. Stalls with sarees sit side by side with fruit and veg stalls, fish stalls, stalls selling Bollywood videos, unlocking mobile 'phones, selling just about anything you care to name, in fact.

I would not recommend the clothing or footwear as much of it is of very poor quality, although some of the fruit and vegetable stalls are great. They carry some really exotic items that you would be hard pressed to get in a supermarket, and the stall holders will even tell you how to cook them if you don't know. I also like the fish stall near Brady Street (pictured) as you can get some unusual Asian fish, again not readily available in a supermarket.

As a people watching exercise, it is absolutely superb.

The market is open from about 0900 to about 1600 every day, except Sunday.

2 more images

So what's an extremely hungover raggedy-looking Canadian doing stumbling around in Brick Lane on a Sunday afternoon anyway? "Wow, it's getting sunny out, " I said to Kristi. "No, it's not," she replies, "it's just you!"
I'm glad I have her as a guide. She reads and strolls from a walking-tour brochure and I follow after her. So this is what it's come to? My mind so destroyed from the previous night's ale that I'm reduced to behaving like a puppy? A coffee is clasped in my hand.
The sights and fantastic smells of Brick Lane in London's East End begin to penetrate though my haze. This is what I need, this much colour and fun... An insane mixture of the Cockney, Indian, Bangladeshi, and Jewish culture throughout the street in bakeries, restaurants, indoor markets, and outdoor patios. Hungry? This is a place to grab lunch, dinner, or a snack. Curry fans will be in heaven; the bagel shops are the best (open 24 hours); and if you're down for traditional Cockney, there's jellied eel. I opt for a couple of potato and pea samosas to hold over my growling stomach. Kristi buys something sweet, with banana and Nutella in it.
On Sundays, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, a sprawling flea-market fills the lane; lots of clothes, food, weird junk, CD/DVDs, second hand goods, and snake oil merchants.
The area now known as "Brick Lane", was originally a Roman burial ground. In the late 16th century this was the main road running through London's brickfield; pieces of brick and tile fell off the carts littering street (hence its current name). It had a reputation as a filthy area populated the poor, the rebellious, and beer drinking louts. This is where the newly immigrated groups to London would first move (in order): Huguenots, Irish, Jewish, Bangladeshis.
It was the perfect place to recover from a rough night. Some fresh air, coffee, some snacks, and so much to see.
"Hey, Kristi! Is that Ewan McGregor sitting over there drinking a coffee and reading a newspaper?" "Yeah, I think it could be..." she answers.