Columbia Road Flower Market
London markets have had to reinvent themselves for the twenty-first century, and Columbia Road is no exception.
The core of the market is still the Sunday cut flower market that goes back to the nineteeth century. Many of the traders now also offer live plants – a nicer way to buy a bamboo for your back garden or a banana plant for your flat than visiting one of the big out-of-town warehouses.
The colour and bustle of the market has a particular appeal to photographers. There are masses of flowers – particularly in early summer, when bedding plants for the windowboxes of blocks of flats all around the area are being sold from temporary scaffolding – and some of the vendors are almost as colourful as their produce.
But more recently, the market has become trendy too, with a tapas bar and French patisserie joining the bagels at Columbia Cafe. There’s a pottery, and a Mexican glassware and tile shop, fine furniture and a couture fashion and bridal shop. An eclectic mix! And that’s after all part of the attraction of this part of London – variety and the unexpected.
A warning though – like most London markets, Columbia Road starts early (8 am) and finishes early. So even if you’re used to a Sunday lie-in, you’ll want to get out of bed good and early to go to the market – it’s all over by two in the afternoon!
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