Tag Archives: Columbia Road Flower Market
21 March, 2010 

Spring flowers

Wonderful Sunday morning, the sun is shining after grey drizzly Saturday. Everyone is happy.

We are having a small dinner party tonight and realised we don’t have enough dinner plates as we broke few in a kitchen disaster. The first thought was to go to Heal’s but then we reminded ourselves of a great little place in Columbia Road so 1h later we were heading East.

First stop was an amazing coffee shop in Kingsland Road, The Bridge Café. The decor is fantastic, it takes you back in time with the wooden bar, old till and ceiling fans as well as a plethora of vintage ornaments. The counter is full of wonderful cakes and pastries and the shop roasts their own beans. The barista is Portuguese and knows a lot about coffee, all the staff are super friendly and helpful. They make a mean espresso too!

Columbia Road Flower Market was heaving with the usual trendy crowd, I think I saw about 20 Henry Holland and Agyness Deyn look alikes. The spring flowers were abundant and we got some paperwhites and hyacinths. The house is smelling wonderfully now.

We stopped at Jones Dairy Café for some brews and bagels. I love the place, it looks great and the food is tasty, but the staff! Even though they are super friendly they are so slow and confused, there is no system so after receiving your food and drinks you may wait for the last cup of tea for about 5 minutes while 3 people ask you what is it that you ordered and was the tea white. After biting into caerphilly cheese and pickle bagel you might forget about it though.

With bags full of plates, coffee and flowers we headed home.

Seasonal afternoon snack of home made bread with cream cheese and cress.

12 October, 2009 

Flowers and bunnies

This weekend I have gone to the East End (yes, yet again!).

Started with lunch at Albion caff, poached eggs and good toast with blackberry jam. I must say the maitre d‘ was brilliantly professional but the rest of the waiting staff failed to impress, it was one of those places where waiters are trying really hard not to notice the customers.

The caff redeemed itself by selling pancake-sized chocolate chip cookies for 95 pence.

Albion has got a deli section too and it all looked rather tempting.

Then we were off to Columbia Road Flower Market which is one of my favorite places in London. The shops are amazing and the flowers pretty and cheap – especially if you decide to stick till the end of the market day, you can get yourself a real bargain.

The hydrangeas were so beautiful.

Lovely shop – Vintage Heaven. A lot of eye candy and Cake Hole cafe at the back. How fab!

They also have a knitting group on Tuesdays, I must go.

Nice tiles at Supernice

Fun stuff at Treacle

I have got the 50s original of this plate. Copy cats.

Ryantoon at Ryantown.

A real boudoire by Jessie Chorley and Buddug Humphrey. All the pretty things a girl can dream of.

Delicate jasmine

Against all odds I made it to Covent Garden to have a look at the huge inflatable bunny by Jeff Koons. It is to do with the Pop Life exhibition at Tate Modern which I am going to see later this week.

Then it was off to The Lamb and Flag – the oldest pub in London

Next stop – Prince Charles Cinema to see Mesrine: Killer Instinct. He was a bad bad man! Can’t wait for part two, probably only at Prince Charles again, I missed the general release.

NB there is a Polish film season at the PCC with great films like Decalogue and Interrogation.

Evening finished at Taro in Soho for a tasty Japanese dinner.

5 October, 2008 

Columbia Road Market


Last Sunday we went to the East End. Columbia Road Flower Market takes place every Sunday and it’s a fun place. Apart from the actual flower market it has got many wonderful shops and cafés.

Jessie Chorley & Buddug Humphrey is a lovely butique run by two friends. The interior is like a 18th century French boudoir. They specialise in hand crafted enamel jewelery, notebooks and cards made from recycled products. Probably the most original shop in London.

We had a quick lunch at the newly opened Campania – an Italian eatery. The place is serving good coffee, pastries, pizza and paninis. We tried a bit of pizza and a panini and sadly all the baked goods are very salty and served cold.

One of the shops we visited sells gardening tools and vintage crockery, I wanted to buy almost everything from that place! Unfortunately didn’t get it’s name. The shop has got a café at the back decorated with 70s furniture, absolutely loved it! Next time I visit the market I will definitely stop by for a cup of tea.