EUROPE FOR FREE : CITY: SECTION :
markets
Portobello
Road
The
grandaddy of British antiques markets (though there's a little bit of
everything), vast and bustling and in a choice neighborhood. The deals
aren't what they once were (this has become largely for serious buyers
of antiques, not folks lookgin to pick up a battered "old-ish"
stick of furnishings).
Sat.
Camden
Market
The
best bit-of-everything flea market and boot sale in Greater London. If
you can't find something here, it probably doesn't exist in the U.K.
Daily (though best on Sat-Sun).
Covent
Garden
The fruit and veg market of Elisa Doolitte fame vanished in 1970;
today's this is more sort of a miniature mall set in a historic building
(a British cousin to Boston's Faneuil Hall, or San Francisco's Fisherman's
Wharf). The little shops and caffs fill a small rectangular building,
most with entrances on both the outside as well as onto the glass-and-iron
skylit courtyard. It's set alone in middle of "the Piazza,"
a would-be Italian square in the middle of the vibrant shop-and pub-filled
Covent Garden neighborhood.
Daily.
Spitalfields
Perhaps the most bohemian of London markets, out on the eastern, Cockney end of town, with artists' studios mixed
in amongst the food and knick-knack stalls. Sunday is the busiest day,
with more than 200 stalls operating. Thursday it becomes a fashion show
for hip young designers. It's currently in danger of being "developed"
out of existence.
Daily.
Petticoat
Lane
Clothing market with the perfect name and everything from funky young
designers to used merchandise to high fashion overstock, slight irregular,
and last year's mode.
Sun (smaller version Mon-Fri).
Smithfield
You don't come here for shopping—unless you're in the market for
a couple of sides of beef. This is London's main meat market, two long
buildings with an open laoding dock in the middle, making for a weird
bit of early morngin sightseeing (you soon get used to the smell). History
and film buffs will be happy to know that the tiny sqaure off to one side
was where William "Braveheart" Wallace was drawn-and-quartered.
The real reason to visit, though, is the Fox & Anchor pub at 115 Charterhouse
St., which has a special exemption to the local liquor licenses allowing
it to serve beer at breakfast to hungry meat cutters (it costs about $12,
but it'll last you through to dinner, trust me—eggs, bacon, sausages,
beans. fried bread, a tomato, unlimited tea, and of course a pint of bitter).
Mon-Fri.
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