9/52 Columbia Road Flower Market

Every Sunday, a ten minute walk from Bethnal Green Tube Station, Columbia Road becomes a riot of colour and noise as the famous flower market gets underway, just as it has done since the 1970s.

 

The market itself covers a short stretch of road, and behind the super colourful stalls on each side are plenty of small cafes, boutiques and vintage shops to explore. Rob and I headed down at around 11am and the market was absolutely packed with people browsing, eating yummy snacks (which many of the residents have taken to selling from their front doors on Sundays – with great success!) and buying huge bouquets of flowers from the busy vendors.

 

There is a fantastic variety of flowers to choose from, and they are very reasonably priced (expect to pay £1 for a bunch of daffodils, and up to £5 for larger bunches of roses or more exotic blooms), it is so difficult to resist filling your arms with flowers and staggering home under the weight of an entire garden, but I didn’t think my fellow commuters would appreciate being smothered with petals, so I limited myself to a couple of pots of daffodils and some mint so I can make tea (eternal cool kid, mint tea makes me feel so fancy).

 

Further along the road on either side of the market the vintage shops are fantastic to explore, and a small market area boasts mountains of secondhand crockery, glassware, tins, books and all manner of strange and wonderful wares, (primarily ‘old tat’, but that’s a matter of opinion!), and I happily poked around until Rob, who is so not a second-hand person, became so horrified that we had to return to the calming environs of the flower market.

 

It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning, and I feel pretty lucky to have such an abundant and thriving flower market right on my doorstep. I only wish it had been sunnier for the many, many photos I just couldn’t resist taking!

 

I am for sure going to be visiting much more throughout the summer, and can’t wait to bring visitors to see the market (so they think I’m in the habit of spending Sunday mornings buying sunflowers and not curled up under my duvet hiding from the sunshine like a little vampire…)

Check out the market if you can, it’s amazing! Big Love, PV x