In Defence of London Markets

After reading James McManus’s article on the tedium and unoriginality of London’s markets I felt his pain. As a kid I used to trawl through Camden Market and think I was truly unique because I’d brought a badge saying ‘Down With Society’ or a Frida Kahlo postcard or something. Which I would’ve been forgiven for thinking, because upon my return to that little town called Essex, no one had ever seen anything like it before. I was super cool. Really I was.

But when I moved to London, sporting my worn-out Converses and wearing a cardy that could’ve been my nan’s, had I obviously not paid loads for it in Brick Lane, I learnt pretty quickly that the ‘individual look’ I was going for was as refreshing as arsenic. If you’re turning to London markets as a saviour to your identity crisis, you’re looking in the wrong place, my friend.

But as for all markets being the same? Blissfully, you couldn’t be more wrong. I was of a similar view until about a year ago when, researching a similar rant, I stumbled blindly over the peripheries of the obvious, and found promise of a land where not every stall sold T-shirts saying ‘I hate slogan T-shirts LOL!!!’.

At first I was disbelieving that some of the places mentioned would have evolved barter systems, let alone shops… But lo and behold, after visiting these bargain hotspots, it turned out I was (mostly) mistaken. Despite the appearance of a ransacked souk or a stall of charity shop rejects, these little markets are full of cut-price gems that you’ll never find in the shops – hand-drawn maps, vintage wedding dresses, old family photographs, accordions – it’s a minefield of interesting finds. While you might have to rake through a lot more crap to get to the good stuff, believe me, the good stuff is there.

The key here is to steer clear of well known places (or perhaps just places you hear about while talking to some milquetoast in skinny jeans telling you an ironic story about his gap year in Kazakhstan) – examples include Camden, Broadway, Southbank (notable exceptions to the rule are Portobello and Borough). Stick to the little, local places you hear about in passing – Deptford, Walthamstow, Chatsworth Road, etc. And far from flourishing under the pretence of being cheap, these are the places where you can do your January shopping for pennies. One word of warning though, James – if you don’t like car boot sales, these markets aren’t for you.

Image by Loetifuss courtesy of Flickr