During my first month in London, I have visited two markets (along with other, smaller markets, especially the Hoxton Market): Brixton Market and Camden Market. Both of these markets were amazing, and incredibly diverse and different than each other.
Brixton Market:
When I went to Brixton, it was very early on in my trip here. We went later in the day, so some of the shops were starting to close up. Something that I noticed was that everyone seemed to be shouting, either directly at people to come look at their things or just in general to gather people around. I had mixed feelings about it. I do not like being directly talked to by shop-keeps unless I am planning on talking to them. On the other hand, I thought it was a good idea to just start yelling to get people's attention. I loved how the meat and vegetable market were open. What I mean by that is that there was a stand full of delicious looking vegetables arraigned artistically. Also, the meat was just hung out either on hooks, or on ice. You could literally go up to and touch a fish in the eye.
I ended up buying some bananas from this one stand. However, he was asking for a ridiculous price. He asked 2 Quid for 7 bananas. I haggled him down to 1.30, so I was very happy with that price. I thought it was a lot of fun haggling with the guy too.
Camden Market:
Camden Market is one of the things I have enjoyed most about being in London so far. We went on a Saturday and it was wild. There were so many people everywhere. These people were unique people though, not you typical Londoners. At one point, we passed a stall where it was painted all black, there was a doorway, and the only thing in front of it was a lady dressed in black with bright red hair. For a while we thought she was a statue. We didn't buy anything from the stands, but the food court was a whole different situation.
When we entered the court, we were inundated with some aromatic smells, it almost knocked us over. There was everything from fish and chips, Asian food, hamburgers, Turkish wraps, and even an entire pig roast. First, we did a lap to see everything, and more importantly, get a sample of everything to help us decide what we wanted for our meal. We treated the lap like an appetizer, eating such a variety of foods. I ended up with a roasted pig sandwich which had the best British ingredient I have found so far: chutney! It was delicious. It is lovely that the market is only 10 minutes away, so this will definitely be a place that I will be going to many times in the future.
Going to these markets was a great experience. I hope to visit more markets on the list, as well as Spitalfields Market on the weekend. Probably this weekend I will go check that out. It is just such a big change in culture than what I am used to at home, where we do all of our shopping at stores, and farmers markets are rare, and if you do find one, they are nothing special.
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