Walthamstow Market
Want a taste of street life? Head for Walthamstow.
Walthamstow hosts the longest street market in Europe, straggling along Walthamstow High Street for more than half a mile. With about 500 different stalls, it has everything – clothes, greengrocery, tools, toys, even bathroom taps.
It’s very much a locals’ market – not aimed at the tourist trade. Unlike some of London’s other markets, you’re not likely to find one-off craft items, fine patisserie or anti ques (though there is a farmers’ market near the town hall on Saturdays).
You’re more likely to find cut price confectionery, pile-em-high-sell-em-cheap shirts, and knocked down mp3 players. Budget items are the order of the day.
So maybe not somewhere to look for souvenirs – but of course you can have fun people watching.
And the market also reflects Walthamstow’s heritage. Tubby Isaac’s stall is a true Cockney tradition, selling whelks and other seafood. More recent arrivals from Pakistan and India and the Caribbean have brought their own flavours to the market – you can find sari silks, for instance, or salwar kameez – the Pakistani ‘trouser suit’.
I like Walthamstow. It’s got some of the same feel as Whitechapel with its higgledy piggledy stalls strung out along the side of the main road, or Roman Road in Bow – but it’s much bigger than either. A great place to spend a morning watching life going on around you.
Where: Walthamstow High Street (Walthamstow Central, on the Victoria Line)
When: Thurs-Sat 9-4
3 Comments
You haven’t really had a look around, have you? The market is strung out along about a mile of shops in the High Street. There are others up the hill in Walthamstow Village if you find every ethnic group on the plant in such a proximity disorientating. Look in the shops and you will find not just what you are after, but something you possibly didn’t know existed.
[...] of Goulston and Middlesex Streets, London E1 – Aldgate tube. There’s another Tubby Isaacs in Walthamstow Market, but that’s a lot further out of the centre of [...]
[...] of Goulston and Middlesex Streets, London E1 – Aldgate tube. There’s another Tubby Isaacs in Walthamstow Market, but that’s a lot further out of the centre of [...]