Borough Market, London

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

With nary a Dickensian street urchin, bell-clanging leper or 'Oliver!'-esque flower seller to be seen, Borough market makes up for it by being a foodie paradise. Located near London Bridge, this glorious market is host to a vast array of fresh fruit, veg, meat, game and fish sellers, not to mention the army of artisnal food vendors. They'll be only to happy to talk to you, as well as provide you with samples to taste. I went for a wander one Saturday morning and ended up with bags of blood oranges, custard tarts and bramley apples. Oh, and a slice of chocolate cherry cake, some mead and a curry.

I spent far too much money there. So will you if you do it properly. Go take a look.

Links:

• Borough market's Flickr group (awesome shots in here): clickety
• How to get there: clickety
• BM's website (sign up & you get recipes, news & information on what's available): clickety

Billingsgate Fish Market, London

"Nah, mate - turn around and head back to Canary Wharf. Cut through the shopping centre - the shops will be closed but it's open, if you know wot I mean - and on the other side is a road. Go left out the door and follow it until you get to an overbridge. You should see the market on the other side of the road. It's huge, you won't miss it. You'll know you're not far off when you see the seagulls hanging 'round. Ha, fucking seagulls, ha ha!".

The last part of his comment turned out to be an invaluable tip.

Thanking the security guard manning his barrier arm on this cold, far-too-early part of a Saturday morning, I walked back to the station to try out his directions. I was you see, a bit lost. I'd been up since well before the crack of dawn, travelling from Surrey to London with the aim of visiting the Billingsgate fish market, the largest of its kind in the UK. Getting here was the easy part; finding the market was anything but.