I enjoy seeing the various plants and pretty flowers for sale on Columbia Road in east London. The flower market takes place on Sunday only, and this is also when the shops, bakeries, and cafes on Columbia Road are open and at their busiest. Any other day on the street is very empty, but head over on Sunday morning or early afternoon, and the street is packed. I headed over to the street last weekend to see if I could find some daffodils for the garden. Look at the bottom of this blog post for some hints and tips about visiting Columbia Road Flower Market.
Unfortunately, daffodils could not be found as there was only one place selling large ones but wanted to sell a whole tray and not a pot; there was no way I could have carried this across to west London. However, I did manage to buy some hyacinths that are highly-perfumed and smelled gorgeous on the tube home.
My tips for visiting Columbia Road Flower Market are to arrive early. Crowds are worse later in the day, and it's impossible to see anything because the walkway through the vendors is not wide enough. (The only exception to this is if it starts to bucket down with rain as this chases many people away, but it has to be hard rain.) The flower market starts to close in the mid afternoon on Sundays, and you may get some good deals on plants if you arrive at or near closing. There are a couple of places that offer street food, coffees, cakes, and lunches but these are packed. Unless you are lucky, you won't be able to get a table. A couple of pubs are at the start/end of the street and around the corner, but these may also be a little busy. However, Hackney Road and Bethnal Green Road are not too far away, so you could stop somewhere for brunch/lunch/breakfast/coffee. Do look out for Lily Vanilli in the courtyard off Ezra Road. You probably won't get a seat, but they have hot drinks and food for sale. Overall, it should not take more than an hour to have a really good look around the plants and pop into a few shops, but this depends on your pace. The vendors themselves only take up a very small stretch of Columbia Road.
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