It’s likely that at some point during your London residence, you’ve been seized with the romantic notion of floating your way round a London market—savouring the smells, laughing with a vendor, flirting your way to some freebies. If you have, then your attempts to live that dream almost certainly resulted in you silently fuming as you crawled among a crowd of thousands, trekking for a cashpoint because you forgot that stalls don’t accept cards, and getting crapped on by a pigeon. Don’t be put off!
At the markets you can buy some of the most unique, quirky, fresh, stylish, grungy, exquisite, unusual items in London. Sometimes you’ll get brilliant bargains, sometimes you’ll pay high for something you fall in love with. And sometimes, yes, you’ll be driven near to homicidal rampage. But they’re one of London’s great strengths: use them while you can, because the developers have their evil, dollar-signed eyes on them.
The food in markets isn’t necessarily locally grown, but you get a much more tempting choice than in most supermarkets. Expect fruit, veg, breads, cheeses, meats, spices and pastries, as well as stalls concocting irresistible snacks from around the world.
Borough (Map 106)
You don’t come here for bargains: you come for ambiance, exquisite international foods, and to impress the person you woke up with. If you’re rich and like the finer things in life, then here your weekly shop can consist of some of the freshest vegetables, plumpest fruit, sweetest patisseries and sockiest cheeses in London. If you’re poor and just fancy a change from Saturday morning repeats of Friends, then head here for a hearty hog roast sandwich and to snaffle some free samples.
Broadway (Map 89)
As gorgeous as Borough, for a third of the price and a fifth of the crowds. It’s a pain to get to, stuck in one of the city’s remaining quaintly retro spots not closely served by the tube (London Fields), but you’ll want to move here by the end of your visit.
Ridley Road (Map 86)
If the gourmet markets are too poncey for you, with their Bavarian organic rye bread and Malaysian honey from breast-fed bees, then get down the Ridley Road. Here, in a market which is bright, chaotic, grubby and bouncing to reggae, you can pick up an incredible array of Jamaican, Turkish, African, Indian and Chinese foodstuffs (and possibly e-coli).
You won’t necessarily pay less than at the high street, but you will have a choice of original and irresistible items sold with passion and knowledge. Expect to leave these markets with a lighter pocket (though try to make sure it’s not because of the pickpockets…).
Spitalfields (Map 91)
Mecca for anyone looking for ethnic-hip and well-priced clothes, bags and jewellery. Here you can often chat to the maker of the clothes you’re eyeing up and learn the story behind their designs. Which is all very inspiring, until you try on their beloved creations, realise you’re too fat for it, and reject it having slightly stretched it. Because then it’s just awkward.
Greenwich (Map 120)
Craft-tastic: a great place to go for beautiful handmade gifts which people love to receive and then put in a cupboard for the rest of their useful life. Here you’ll find a gorgeous range of items for home and lifestyle: pictures, antiques, candles, pottery, soft furnishings and clothes, as well as some great food stalls, and an above-average number of beautiful rich people than at most markets.
Portobello Road (Map 29)
Although famed for being the World’s Largest Antiques Market, Portobello Road seems to sell everything. You’ll need patience to work around its sprawling size and the crowds, but just about anything you’re looking for is there somewhere or can be sourced by speaking to the right vendor. Stalls include clothes (from classy-vintage to student-cheap), jewellery, fabric, food, as well as 1500 antique stalls selling maps, medals, silverware, and things you never thought you needed (and which, after you’ve got them home, you realise you didn’t).
Camden (Map 71)
Camden is actually home to six markets, though “chic” doesn’t do any of them justice. Here you’ll find a purse-emptying range of alternative fashions, vintage clothes, accessories, gifts, t-shirts, comedy hot water bottle covers, tie-dyed hippies, teeny-punks and chaps asking if you’d care for a nice bit of crack. Anything goes, and this open, free atmosphere makes it a major and exciting draw. Hit Camden Stables for brilliant international food stalls.
If you’re a Londoner who “just adores the city! But oh dear no, wouldn’t dream of bringing kids up here”, then chances are you don’t mingle much with the Prop’a Laandoner. This hardy breed whose family history is a Dickensian yarn of blitzes, TB and chimney sweeps are the core of this city, and the gradual nudging out of their jellied eels and pub sing-songs is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Find them at London’s Propa Markets before they vanish.
Smithfield (Map 15)
Smithfield Market is in full swing at 4 am, which makes it the perfect place to stumble into on your way home from clubbing. Unless you’re vegetarian, because while frying bacon may have you yearning for looser morals, the smell of this 800 year old meat market will have you retching over your recycled sandals. It’s the best place in London to pick up any meat you could hope for, including, in the 1500s, a barbecued Protestant or a topside of William Wallace, this being the site of hundreds of executions in its time. Some of the local pubs hold special early licenses, so on your way to the office you can swing in for breakfast over a pint with some of the meat porters: they’d just love it if you did.
Columbia Road (Map 91)
There’s something deeply touching about an exquisite flower market being manned by some of the burliest Cockneys you’ll see outside a Guy Ritchie film. Get there first thing on Sundays for the best choice, or in a low-cut top for the best bargains. And if the crowds and cries of the “daffs, dahlin’?” become too much, just slip into the enchanting boutiques lining Columbia Road.
Billingsgate (Map 101)
For the largest selection of fish in London, outside the London Aquarium (where they frown on you if you try to fry the fish. Bloody bureaucracy.), head to Billingsgate. People were buying their fish here long before London went all yuppie, and much the same stock is available—winkles, cockles, potted shrimp and things which smell ungodly. Today you’ll find alongside them almost any fish you could hope for (though don’t ask for goldfish), as well as poultry, oils and snacks.