COLUMBIA ROAD FLOWER MARKETS

One of my favourite 'Sunday in London' activities is to visit the Columbia Road Flower Markets in London's East End!

From 8am till the early afternoon, a small part of Columbia Road is closed off to traffic and becomes a bustling pedestrian wonderland packed with plants and cut flowers of the season. Some of the pitch owners have been set up and selling flowers here for generations. The flower market is lined on either side of the street with colourful and quaint Victorian store fronts of all interests. You can find an array of art, cakes, teapots, vintage fashion, jewelry, interiors, furniture and everything for the garden here.

We visited on a chilly clear first Sunday of 2010 to find it not as busy as usual. Some pitches appeared to still be away on holiday and alot of the Victorian store fronts were also closed. The atmosphere, however, was fabulous as usual with the vendors chanting their convincing sales pitches of... 'two bunches a fiver!!', 'get your hyacynths, three for a tenner!'

Unable to resist, as usual, we snuffled up three beautiful bunches of pink and white Lisianthus.

They were just the flowers I was after

and they are at home looking

beautiful on our coffee table.

I always visit 'RyanTown', the work shop of artist Rob Ryan who's work I absolutely adore. He does the most beautiful and intricate paper cut out pieces with gorgeous poems and stories! the shop was closed on our visit but I will be sure to return and hope one day to own one of his peices!

My other religious pit stop is Treacle, the cupcake and tea shop! (only tea - no coffee sold). Besides selling the most gorgeous cupcakes, they also sell a range of tea accessories. I simply love their selection of tea sets, teapots, retro tea towels, mix masters and other comfy home wears! It is a pleasure to be in the store with all their great displays and ideas! I just had to buy their interpretation of the 'keep calm and cary on' poster'! you can see in the above shot!

There is always something new to explore that wasn't there or that you didn't get to see the last time you visited the market. This time we spotted a very packed cafe called Campania Gastronomia! Through the windows we could see people drinking coffee and eating nutella on toast! YUMMY! We did not have time to wait for a seat but we bought take away coffees from a window off to the side of the shop which were divine. The delicious coffee is not surprising considering the owners are originally from the Campania region of Italy.They are local residents on Columbia Road now and run the cafe during the week as well as Sundays!

We will be back early for a seat next visit!

Here are some more snaps I took on Sunday at the markets! Enjoy, and if anyone ever wants a market companion, you know who to call!