London Markets Brick Lane MarketBrick Lane Market (Sundays Only)
Brick Lane Market is based around Brick Lane, in the borough of Tower Hamlets. It's located at the northern end of Brick Lane and along Cheshire Street in East London. It operates every Sunday from around 4am to 2pm.
Almost anything can be found on Brick Lane, from antique books to eight-track cartridge decks (for many years it hosted a stall selling nothing but rusty cog wheels). A large part of its charm is the possibility of such strange discoveries and it has always been popular with and much photographed by art students. Bargain hunters from across London also value it greatly. It is particularly notorious as a place where stolen bicycles are sold.
Brick Lane Market is distilled East End London, meaning Jewish bagel shops, Bangladeshi curry houses, Indian sari silks - and Cockneys crying out their wares. This chaotic, bustling market is as much about the street-theatre of the location as the actual goods you'll find there. It attracts lots of young Londoners, in search of second-han
d furniture, unusual clothes and bits of tat. They're likely to round off the expedition with an inexpensive Sunday lunch (probably curry) in a local restaurant. The appeal of this market is not knowing what you'll find, anything from cheap clothing and old magazines to Art Deco furniture and skip-diver's junk.
It's also a popular location for buskers and street entertainers - unlike Covent Garden it doesn't hold auditions. You get a real mixed bag as a result.
Brick Lane Market, 154 Brick Lane, City of London, Greater London E1 6RU
Call: 020 7247 6735
Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street and Aldgate East.
