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www.hackneyfleamarket.com
Twitter: @HackneyFlea
Insta: diyartmarket

Run by the Hackney Flea team that also bring your the DIY Art Market, this event puts London’s ceramicists and DIY potters centre stage.  There are plenty of new young ceramic artists showing their work who are exhibiting alongside established ceramicists from various London studios including Turning Earth, Glebe Road and Peckham Kiln Rooms.  There really is something for everyone here, from a delicate vase in muted colours with a matt glaze to a huge brightly coloured dish depicting a bacchanalian scene that should definitely be put away when the vicar comes for tea. The prices are very reasonable with lots of things for around the £30 mark and plenty of little ceramic things for just a few quid.  Take a look at their website for forthcoming events.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman

Lewisham College Car Park, Lewisham Way, SE4 1UT
www.brockleymarket.com
Twitter: @BrockleyMarket
Insta: brockleymarket
Rail/Overground St Johns or Brockley
Sat 10am-2pm

This award winning food market has a loyal following among the Brockley locals who manage to fill the car park of Lewisham College every Saturday come rain or shine, turning this little venture into a major feature of London’s food landscape.

The customers a drawn by a great mix of food producers and street food stalls that make this a market to do both your weekly shop as well as relax and enjoy some great alfresco dinning.  For those after ingredients for the kitchen there are a number of organic fruit and veg stalls offering seasonal produce direct from the farm.  Brockley also boasts a quality fish monger in Veasey & Sons, who always have a great display of freshly caught produce and will gut and fillet to order as well as offering the odd cooking tip.  Carnivors will not be disappointed with several meat and poultry stalls offering a limited but top quality selection, including great bacon from Bermondsey based ‘The Butchury’ and Moons Green offering hand-carved ham to order.  Cheese is also an important part of the market with expert Cheese mongers Mons offering all kinds of artisan products with lots of tasters for the curious. Blackwoods Cheese Company actually making a range of their own unpasteurised cheeses and the deli stall Flavours of Spain offers among its carefully chosen selection of Spanish foods several great cheeses including an award winning manchego. Delicious pickles, olives, breads, cakes and pastries as well as a selection of locally brewed beers complete the picture and enable visitors to do a complete shop here if needed.

Lovers of street food have plenty to choose from including great sandwiches from Sub Cult, a bewildering selection of burgers from Mother Flipper and a Vietnamese take on the same from Bill or Beak.  Dough Van have ingeniously managed to cram a wood burning stove into a medium size van which sounds mad, but produces great pizza.  There’s a seating area to enjoy the food and a great coffee van from local café Browns of Brockley and Good and Proper Tea, if you fancy something to drink.  It’s great to see this little foodie oasis blossom in south east London, long may it continue.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman

www.clerkenwellvintagefashionfair.co.uk
@ClerkenwellVint (twitter)
@clerkenwellvint (insta)
Freemason’s Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, WC2B 5AZ

Clerkenwell Vintage Fair was set up by vintage fashion enthusiast Savitri Coleman back in 2009 and has since then gained an international reputation and a loyal following. The event has recently relocated to the grand Freemason’s Hall in the heart of Covent Garden, but the move has not dampened the enthusiasm of the 50 vintage specialists that set up here or their clientele, who trek from far and wide in search of stylish additions to their wardrobe.

The fairs are not just a meeting place for buyers and sellers of vintage clothing and accessories, but a real celebration of classic style and glamour with quite a few of the traders and visitors taking the opportunity to strut out in their glad rags and enjoy themselves. If you’re looking for an authentic 1940’s zoot suit, a raw silk kimono or a 70’s Biba outfit, there’s a good chance you’ll find it here and there’s also an alteration service if your beloved new garment needs a nip and tuck.

Clerkenwell Vintage is a monthly event that is well worth seeking out, once you’ve been to one you’re sure to come back for more. Take a look at their website for forthcoming events.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman

Twitter/Instagram: @E17DESIGNERS
www.e17designers.co.uk
Regular events at venues across Walthamstow

E17 Designers markets take place at a number of venues across Walthamstow, but the lack of a permanent location and varied dates only seems to add to their appeal.  The market’s success is largely due to the enthusiasm and energy of the organisers, who make an effort to promote each season’s markets and over a decade of trading have acquired a great reputation and a loyal following.  Each market draws about 25-30 designer-makers offering jewellery, stylish knit wear, handmade clothing for grownups and their offspring, artwork and original textiles as well as accessories and homewares. The stalls are almost all staffed by the designer-makers, who are keen to talk about their wares and how they are made.

The atmosphere at these events is very upbeat with lots of regulars showing up to chat and shop and  few leaving without a bag of goodies and a smile.  The events are more than just a place to shop with occasional workshops, craft of faceprinting for children and live music or DJ performances all part of the show and free entry to boot.  Take a look at their website or follow on social media to find out about forthcoming events.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman

Opposite Islington Green at the junction of Upper Street and Essex Road, N1
www.camdenpassageislington.co.uk
Twitter: @CamdenPassageN1
Tube: Angel
Open: Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday 7am-3pm (antique market); Thursday & Friday 8.30am-6pm (book market)

Camden Passage is not anywhere near Camden, but lies in a quaint pedestrian passage that runs behind Islington High Street.  The modest shop fronts, partly occupied by antique dealers, and the flagstone paving give an old world atmosphere and the antique market on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the book market on Thursday add to this sense of antiquity.  The architecture is a genuine mix of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian, but the market and antique dealers are far more recent, arriving in the 1960s  – when Islington began the process of gentrification that has transformed it into one of London’s most desirable neighbourhoods.

The antiques market on Wednesdays and Saturdays is a lot of fun with experienced antique dealers selling genuine antiques and objets d’art, along side more second-hand vintage stalls.  The mix is an appealing one with lots of junk to sift through for a gem for just a few quid as well as some fine antiques sold for several hundred.  

It is in the middle section of the market, just before the Camden Head pub, that some of the best stalls tend to congregate with enough second-hand clothes, junk and bric-à-brac to keep bargain hunters occupied for a while. Those with more money to spend and an interest in fine antiques should concentrate on the far end of the market – Pierrepont Arcade – a covered area with al fresco stalls and an indoor maze of units selling little bits and pieces like stamps and military medals.  It’s around here you can find some great things for the home such as crystal champagne glasses for not much more than the clunking supermarket alternative.

The book market on Thursdays and Fridays has a completely different feel.  While the antique market sells mostly upmarket items to tourists and well-to-do antique hunters, the book market is far more egalitarian.  Hardbacks sell for £4 and paperbacks go for a £1 or less.  Don’t expect decorative antiquarian tomes, but rather popular paperbacks as well as reference books on travel, art, cooking and history.

Eat and Drink
The Camden Head is a stylish pub which is a great place for a pint.  There are lots of cafés on Camden Passage, but one of the best place to go Sushi Show at number 28 offering freshly prepared sushi at a reasonable price.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman

www.diyartmarket.com
Twitter: @diyartmarket
Instagram: diyartmarket
Occasional events at locations in Hackney and Peckham

If you want proof that London is a city packed with young creative people, you could do a lot worse than attend one of these DIY Art Markets where a vast number of painters, cartoonists, fanzine publishers, print makers, jewellers and textile artists congregate to display and sell their wares.

At any of these events your bound to encounter work that is original, sometimes beautiful, but very often thought provoking and downright funny.  The events are full of the kind of youthful enthusiasm that is great to experience.  I loved the ceramic plates with erotic depictions in a kind of primitive style and the radical fanzines with all kinds of off field political ideas and images.  One stall represented an Eastern European art collective with a really unusual collection of print designs that seemed a modern take on the old soviet style posters.  There are so many great things here if you like contemporary art and design that you are bound to find something to take away and treasure.  I am still chuckling at the handful of funny cloth badges I bought from a young artists calling herself J W Badges and the A2 photographic poster I bought is still looking for a frame but will no doubt find its place on our office wall.  

These markets are really great places to visit just for the fun of it and a lot of the artists here seem to be here as much for the fun of it as to do business.  One t-shirt on display by artist Babak Ganjei declared ‘ART IS THE THING NOBODY ASKED YOU TO DO’ and that seems to embody the spirit of the event and although nobody asked, I’m glad this group of over 80 creatives are doing their thing.

The atmosphere of the market is helped by great background music which is played just loud enough to notice without being intrusive and their is the added appeal of a great in-house café serving good coffee and snacks.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman

Roman Road from St Stephen’s Road to Parnell Road, E3 5EU
Tube: Mile End (Central, Metropolitan and District)
Open: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 8.30am-4.30pm
Roman Road and its market are a strange mix of the cosmopolitan and the parochial.  Approaching the market along Roman Road you will pass a photography gallery, an art gallery and even a Buddhist Centre, and yet by the time you reach the market it feels as though you are in the heart of the East End.  Most of the people who shop here are locals and one of the stall-holders spoke of the other side of Victoria Park as though it were some distant and exotic land.  This end of Roman Road seems relatively untouched by gentrification, but the market itself is a surprisingly friendly and pleasant place to shop and  one of the best markets to find discounted high street fashion.  

The mysterious stall that sells women’s garments one at a time from a box is still going strong.  The pitch is always surrounded with eager local women waiting for the next item in the hope that it will be in a style they like and in a size that fits them – price is never a problem as most items are sold for just a few pounds. There are other more conventional clothing stalls along this part of the market with lots of basic street fashion for around a tenner and one trader at the centre of the market who always has a great selection of French Connection seconds and surplus stock for a fraction of the usual price.  
There are several shoe stalls offering a selection of fashionable footwear with prices starting from around £20 a pair and this is also a good market to find bargain bags and suitcases, bedding and even a modest flower stall offering bedding plants and cut flowers.

    Roman Road Market is still a great place to spend a morning, but it’s one of those markets that has been most affected by big shopping centres like Westfield in Stratford and matters have been made worse by the council introducing parking restrictions in the surrounding area.  Whichever way you come here, it’s worth the journey – you’re bound to leave with a few bargains and a smile on your face.  Visitors to the area should take the opportunity to explore Victoria Park and the Hereford Union Canal which are just 5 minutes walk from the market.

This feature is taken from our forthcoming book:
London's Markets
by Andrew Kershman