Student Bloggers
Brick Lane Market
Date
April 1, 2019
Bridget Bradshaw, Student Blogger, Queen Mary University Of London, England
This past Sunday I ran some errands, something I thought would take maybe 40 minutes round trip, and ended up staying out for half a day. What had happened was, as I was staring down at my phone trying to find my tube station, I turned onto Brick Lane in Shoreditch and found myself amid a crowd of people in the middle of the street. As I kept walking, the crowds got heavier and looking at my map I saw I had stumbled upon the Brick Lane Sunday Markets.
What that meant exactly was that on each side of the street there were vendors of all types selling clothes, art, food–oh, the food–and much more. It was an environment full of bright colors and music and amazing smells. I couldn’t help but give in to temptation and buy something to snack on as I browsed. On the menu was everything from curry to dumplings, from bratwurst to donuts; it was hard to decide. I ended up grabbing a calzone and wandering in and out of shops, admiring wares and listening to the street performers. Among some of those wares were homemade soaps and candles, beautiful art, and lots of unique jewelry. The market even has the largest group of independent vintage clothing shops in London all gathered in one place, making it easy to weave in between racks of clothes from the past six decades while listening to the hits of those same years.
In the end, it was not how I had expected to spend my day, but I was immensely happy that that’s how it turned out. It was loud and crowded in the most comforting way. The best part is that it happens every weekend, 11am-6pm Saturday and 10am-5pm Sunday, so if you have a sunny weekend day free in London, I suggest checking it out!