What I Found in London Markets That You Won’t Find Anywhere Else

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According to London City Hall, more than 280 street markets across the city sell the likes of antiques, jewelry, artworks, food and produce, flowers, clothing, specialty items and all kinds of knick-knacks.

Here are a few of the London markets I visited and the interesting things I found there:

Portobello Road Market

A soft drizzle hasn’t deterred London’s crowds from swarming the bohemian Notting Hill neighborhood on a Saturday. This is the day the world-famous Portobello Road Market is at its peak.

Shops and vendor stalls line both sides of the road for several blocks. They are stocked with glittering jewelry, paintings, decorative arts and crafts, and, no surprise, English tea sets.

Sweatshirts, gaudy silverware and hanging baseball hats are just some of the items rounding out adjacent stalls. It can all be a bit overwhelming because of the sheer jumble of display tables.

Yet I soon find something truly British: cigarette cards. “They’re like baseball cards,” says antiques dealer David Banks. He’s selling matted collectibles near the travel books storefront used in the blockbuster 1999 romance movie Notting Hill.

The informative cards – which I had never seen before – were used to stiffen packs of cigarettes in the UK. They highlighted a wide range of subjects, from wildlife and flower species to famous places and sports. Production began in the 1890s and stopped in 1940 with the onset of World War II.

Beatles music blares from his stall as Banks shows me cards from 1909 with colorful drawings of parakeets and pheasants. They’re inscribed at the top with “Player’s Cigarettes,” which was a Nottingham, England tobacco company.

“This was called a nature series,” he tells me, explaining how the cards were produced as a set of 25 or 50 focusing on one subject, each highlighting a different fact. Some popular sets have been reprinted in recent years.

Educational Cigarettes

“They were a source of public information and education. There was no Internet, no television, very little radio and not a lot of print media,” says Banks. “And everybody smoked.”

Each cigarette pack had one card and although production stopped more than 80 years ago, original cards remain today because so many were printed and people collected and saved them.

“They were produced to a very high standard because before the war quality was the primary concern, really beautiful illustrations and print quality,” Banks continues. “The war brought on mass production. After that, it was never the same.”

Banks shows me another card series – this time, views of London from 1929 with black and white photos of landmarks including the Tower Bridge and Trafalgar Square. “People were intrigued by photography in the 20s,” he says. “No one had cameras back then.”

I continue dodging the crush of shoppers along Portobello Road, looking for other things British. I find cricket balls selling for £14 each and solid brass door knockers.

One knocker had on it a contorted facial image reminding me of where actor Alistair Sim’s Scrooge character sees Marley’s ghost in the classic 1951 movie A Christmas Carol. Door knockers with likenesses of lions, foxes and rabbits are the most popular, the vendor tells me.

There’s also a “Briton Wants You” sign with a mustachioed officer pointing his finger, similar to Uncle Sam’s call to enlist in the military. Leather soccer and rugby balls fill a nearby bin.

Greenwich Market

The following day, in Maritime Greenwich, I entered the borough’s central Greenwich Market. (Greenwich is where you can straddle the prime meridian and stand in both the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere at the same time.)

Sunday has brought out families with strollers amidst stalls with snacks and food, including natural honey and pumpkin cookies. One vendor is selling hats and scarves made of alpaca wool. Another has bandanas patterned with the English flag for cats and dogs for £6 to £8.

Paintings in bright colors depict St. Paul’s Cathedral, London’s burgeoning skyline and Greenwich’s Cutty Sark, one of Britain’s fastest clipper ships built in 1869 and now a tourist attraction.

But what catches my eye is the work of Duncan McKean. The British lighting specialist and interior designer had the uniquely simple idea of placing a decorative LED light bulb on discarded and outdated items.

“They now have a new life; otherwise, they wouldn’t be used anymore,” says Geraldine Burke, who’s manning a stall with McKean’s creations.

They include lights affixed to a 1930s camera, a 1940s voltmeter, a 1950s train car, and most unusual, a WWII field telephone still in good condition.

“It’s a British Army telephone that was used in the trenches,” says Burke. “Some of these items are hard to come by.”

I find another vendor selling prints of his precision drawings of racing cars, UK soccer arenas and other venues for cricket and rugby.

“Fans are passionate about sports and their stadiums and they go to them regularly,” says artist and illustrator Brian Casey. “These are so lovely and hand drawn. I just think they’re brilliant with the detail as well,” chimes in Mary McKay, a customer from Aberdeen, Scotland.

Jubilee Market

In central London’s Jubilee Market at Covent Garden, I find writing journals with a locking mechanism and customized with handcrafted leather covers. Many have a decorative metal medallion or leather shaped like a mask on the cover.

Themes range from art and theater to love and death, eagles spreading their wings and the scowling face of a bear. I figure they’re another unique find, only to admit disappointment when I see similar leather-bound journals stacked alongside trinkets of red double-decker buses and Big Ben towers at a London souvenir shop.

Other Popular London Markets

The list above is just the beginning. It would take weeks or even months to visit all the London Markets. If you’re up for trying, here are a few more of the most popular:

• Old Spitalfields Market in the east side of London specializes in fashion with designer brands and the latest accessories. There’s a weekly antique market and a vinyl record fest every two weeks.

• Borough Market, just south of London Bridge, is known for its gourmet food selections, quality meats and organic produce. Venues sell unique food items and a wide range of international cuisine.

• Camden Market in the city’s north end is where Camden Lock crosses Regent’s Canal. Alternative and vintage fashion, music memorabilia and unique gifts fill many of the more than 1,000 shops, bars and restaurants.

• Columbia Road Flower Market opens on Sunday mornings with fragrant and colorful panoramas of flowering plants, shrubs and trees. Shops sell cut flowers and gardening essentials as well.

For more information on London Markets: https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/shopping/market/londons-top-markets

Author Bio: A former Houston TV news reporter, Richard Varr is a freelance travel writer and member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). He’s a frequent contributor to Porthole Cruise and Travel Magazine and the Good Sam RV Club’s Coast to Coast. Other publications have included the onboard magazines for major cruise lines, AllThingsCruise.com, Toronto Star, London Telegraph, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, TravelWeekly.com, AAA Home&Away, EastWestNewsService.com and many others. Richard wrote the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide to Philadelphia.

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