Hammersmith

Weather - Mixture of sun and cloud and light rain, warmer - Min 9, Max 17

It was a day of visiting a number of markets in the East End area of London. I did feel I was on the set of the sitcom ‘East Enders’ in some parts of it. 

On the train there was a dapper young man in a bowler hat and suit alongside a young boy in his judo outfit. We do see interesting people catching the trains and buses.

We firstly headed to the large Spitalfields Markets which is housed in a restored 19th century Victorian market hall. It is made up of countless independent stalls with art, fashion, food and music along with speciality shops. We arrived at 10.15 and the markets were just opening so we had our regular morning coffee before we set about exploring. The standard of the markets was very good and varied. 

There was a hat stall called ‘The Last Stop for the Curious Vintage’ which sold top hats and bowler hats. The stall holder said he sells many of the top hats when Ascot is being held. We thought we were being clever with our photo but we were told many tourists take a photo similar to ours!

In complete contrast to the Spitalfields Markets were the markets in Brick Lane which were only a short distance away. They were edgy, quirky and crazy. There was a lot of graffiti art on the buildings along with many retro fashion stalls and food stalls. We were greeted by a set of coloured broccoli high on a brick wall by the artist Adrian Boswell who runs Broccoli Lane Gallery on Brick Lane. I looked for Broccoli Lane but it doesn’t exist and is merely the name of the gallery.

It also seemed to be the place where people dressed in retro and other fashion styles and they were keen to have their photos taken. Also on the street were opportunities to play chess and this drew quite a crowd. 

I took countless photos of the graffiti walls and it was best summed up by the following artwork.

We returned to the Spitalfields Markets for lunch and enjoyed a Turkish Lamb Gozleme. It was our first opportunity to sit down and have a break before heading off to the nearby Petticoat Lane Market on the way back to the Aldgate East railway station to return to Hammersmith. Petticoat Lane Market was where I felt I was on the set of ‘East Enders’. This market seemed to be for the locals rather than the visitors to the area with more serviceable items of new and retro clothing and household goods. 

We arrived back at the flat at 2.30pm which is the earliest we have returned after sightseeing. We took the opportunity to buy groceries and catch up on some washing before we start our last week of touring before we return to Australia.

We planned to have dinner at our old ‘local’ pub, ‘The Blue Anchor’ but when we arrived at 5.45pm it was heaving and there were no available tables. We went next door to ‘The Rutland Arms’ and they had one spare table on the second floor. We chose the roast chicken dinner given it’s an English tradition to have a roast on a Sunday. It was a good choice.