Berwick Street Market
Berwick Street market is a real slice of old London - a slice of old Soho too with its sex shops and rather dubious establishments. (Now that there’s an Ann Summers in every high street, Soho has lost a bit of its mystique - though not all of its seediness.)
Here, as the splendid photo shows, you can find your fruit and veg, rather more interestingly displayed than at Tesco Metro. The prices are often very keen.
Here you can also find antique vinyl and secondhand CDs, with a number of specialist shops such as Vinyl Junkies, at number 94. If Kraftwerk or Bowie, House or Indie, are more your thing than Britney Spears, you’ll enjoy searching for interesting albums here. There’s also a shop selling vintage magazines and posters - reminding us that as well as being ex-Sex-Central, Soho houses the London film and video post-production industry.
It’s odd that this market still survives. But than goodness it does! It’s a lovely piece of colour both figuratively and literally, in the heart of what might have become a very ‘corporate’ central London. So although perhaps I wouldn’t go out of my way to find the market, whenever I’m around the area I find myself heading off Shaftesbury Avenue and up towards Berwick Street for half an hour’s browsing.
Where: Berwick Street, Soho (Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road tube)
When: Monday to Saturday, 9-6
Photo credit: Craig Allen on flickr
