Old Spitalfields Market ☆☆☆
The Old Spitalfields Market
The East End bit-of-everything stalls is most bohemian of London markets
The core of London's oldest market (est. 1638) occupies a series of 1880s buildings, expanded in the 1990s with a heinous sideways step pyramid of modern glass office building eyesores by Norman Foster.
Spitalfields was long one of London's most bohemian markets—though many argue it has been recently "developed" into something gentrified and faux-genuine.
Artists' studios mix in amongst the trendy eating spots and knickknack stalls (the main fruit anf veg market moved to the suburbs years ago).
- Sunday is the busiest day, with more than 100 stalls operating.
- Monday to Wednesday are quieter times, with just the core vendors operating
- Thursday it becomes a antiques and vintage flea market.
- Fridays it returns to fashion and art (with records the focus on the first and third Fridays of each month).
- Saturday focuses on a Style Market of fashion, often from hip young designers, with rotating themes: The first Saturday of every month is "Vintage Saturday;" the fourth Saturday is an African market.
There's also an Arts Market most Thursdays through Sundays on Market Street (between Brushfield Street and Crispin Place).
Spitalfields Tours
These might include Spitalfields
More toursLondon shopping links
- Visitlondon.com - Good roundups, overviews, and shop descriptions courtesy of the official tourist office.
- Timeout.com - Time Out is always on the cutting edge of what's hot, new, and different.
- Shopikon.com - Descriptions of independent shops across London
- Streetsensation.co.uk - Interesting street-by-street compendium of shops, with photographs of shopfronts lined up as in reality and one-line summaries of most.
- Oxfordstreet.co.uk - All the shops on the famed Oxford Street of London.
- Viator.com - Shopping tours of London and to nearby outlet villages.Partner
