London: Tea Time in Wonderland

Columbia Road is such a quiet street most of the week… On Sundays, she puts her dancing shoes, and oh, baby, the place rocks! Such a festival of colours and perfumes in the air!

Your’e bound to find happiness – from fresh cut flowers, plants in pot, banana trees, bulbes… A real market like in France: singing, vibrant, with the sellers calling you on the way for a good bargain…

Columbia Flower Market, it’s also such an atmosphere! The street becomes an urban jungle. Passers-by carry boxes and bags of plants – actually, anything goes to carry them..

And behind all the green, 60 shops or so, wooden type, very Victorian looking…

Delis, cafes as Vintage Heaven which also sells a selection of exquisite vintage cups… or Treacle with their exquisite minicupcakes and their sense of humour!

A lot of design shopping to be done too  and very varied: garden themed of course, but look out for extraordinary soaps – I found a carrot one, magical wall stickers, great mailboxes…

Oh, and don’t forget art galleries such as…

…Nelly Duff where you will find prints of Street Art Masters, including Eine and Mr Wim!

…Elphick’s where Sharon sells her creations (she uses it as her workshop the rest of the week) and alos sells art from great artists qui vend ses creations (la boutique lui sert d’atelier en semaine) et distribue d’autres artistes, entr’autres les oeuvres d’Helen Musselwhite…

…Columbia Road Gallery, more classical but you really feel like stepping in the painting and go there for a walk…

Here, no chain or Starbucks, originality wins!

It’s so… coulourful and lively. Difficult to picture the place when it was a covered market: 400 stalls, with a flat above in a gothic building. The railway project around never happened and the building finally was destroyed. Sellers prefered being outside anyway. The market survived… From being on Saturdays, it switched to Sundays, thanks to the Jewish community. It was more handy for sellers too: they could go to Covent Garden during the week, Spittafield Market on the Saturday and finish their stock here.  WWII was a hard time too… food was more important than flowers, obviously. And today? People will travel miles to come here and you will even see, from time to time, a TV crew filming for a gardening programme….

Note to parents: not the ideal place for buggies, so crowded! You’ll be better off with a scarf or a Bjorn type baby-carrier. No hysteria, people are happy to walk around and will let you go through if they can. Lots of cafes to stop at. At the beginning of the market, you’ll find a square with games for the kids. Oh, and do stop at Lapin & Me, a fantastic shop with lots of French products, colouring books and games!

Columbia Flower Market
Columbia Road
London, E2 7RG

Every Sunday from 08.00 to 14.00

Tube: Old Street  – 15mn walk to get there, take your map!

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