Columbia Road Flower Market

Something that London definitely does right is Markets. Wandering around the many markets on offer in this city is a favourite weekend pastime, especially when the sun comes out and the temperature creeps up after a long winter, like it did recently.

Columbia Road Flower Market is one of my favourite markets in East London. Not only is it perfect for the obvious – a beautiful bunch of flowers, but the gorgeous little shops scattered around Columbia Road selling trinkets and homewares suck me in Every. Single. Time.

Located on Columbia Road in Shoreditch, the flower market is open every Sunday from 8am to 3pm-ish.

If you genuinely just want to buy some flowers or plants and get out, I recommend you go first thing in the morning and beat the crowds because it gets extremely busy, especially on a nice day!

I always like to start the day by heading to the hidden coffee shop on Ezra Street to get my caffeine fix, before attempting to navigate the crowded street on the hunt for the perfect bunch of flowers, plants, seeds, trees, or whatever else I feel like pretending I’ll keep alive but will surely fail to.

The market starts to close at 3pm, at which time you can snap up some great bargains, so if your budget is tight then hold off until the afternoon.

Oh, then there’s the cute dog watching! 😉 Luckily, my friends have some of the cutest damn dogs in the world….

Don’t forget to go for a little walk along the side streets. There’s some cute food stalls, musicians, good coffee and loads of amazing shops…

There’s also a big, green park nearby. Perfect for …

ICE CREAM! Fun fact: British soft serve tastes totally different to Aussie/Kiwi soft serve ice-cream. It’s much creamier and weirdly, less cold?! (Maybe I’m making that last bit up…)

If you’re feeling particularly hungry then walk on over to Brick Lane. The Sunday market is full of mouth-watering curries, amongst other deliciously-smelling market food.

Do you have a favourite London market? Is there a market you’ve always wanted to visit?

Kamila x
LNG