Tuesday - To Market, To Market

Brick Lane (dress), Petticoat Lane Market, Leadenhall Market, financial district, Gherkin, St. Pauls, Nat'l Gallery (impressionists) - saw night skating at the tower of london moat, full moon.

As part of my plans for London and Paris, I wanted to visit markets, be they food markets or other sorts.  Visiting an outdoor market would give me an idea of what the locals did on their Saturdays or how they chose to get their vegetables, etc.  So, today seemed like a good day for this type of adventure.

And of course, with blue skies on Sunday and Monday, I had high hopes.  And yes, it was raining.  :D

My friend Michelle and I started out by taking the Tube to the north-eastern part of London in order to visit Brick Lane.  I had read about Brick Lane in my Lonely Planet guide as a particularly interesting neighborhood to visit, and the two other markets that I wished to visit were going to be in that neck of the woods, anyway, so we plotted a course.

We got off at the Tube and immediately saw a little Cornish Pasty stand.  Did I buy one then, even though I was hungry?  No.  I put it off until later.  Tip to all, when you see it, do it!  Don't wait for later.  However, we had had a bit of a late morning due to the rain and I was quite anxious to see the area.  With the days getting dark around 4, that was an understandable incentive.

We were in one area of the financial district with tall buildings, although not so tall as one might find in New York or Los Angeles (such as skyscrapers).  But there were plenty of folks walking about dressed in business suits.  We walked about a bit with our map to get our bearings.  Travelling to Brick Lane needed a map, even if it was just a simple one.  On the way,  we walked by quite a bit of construction and old train stations.  Apparently there was a Brick Lane train station which had been "bricked" up and turned into a restaurant and shops.

It had stopped raining at this point and we closed our umbrellas.  Walking, we went a street too far and ended up in a nice neighborhood with apartment buildings.  I liked to look at them and wonder if that's where I would live, were I ever to move there.  Each of the little apartment buildings had a decent sized courtyard or yard, really, as it was really green.  We went all the way until we went to a round-about and realized that really, this didn't look at ALL like Brick Lane.

We consulted our map and realized that we needed to go back to the main street, and when we did, we did actually see (and smell) Brick Lane from afar.  Oh, where all of the shops are and the busy curry smells!  Wonderful!  So, we headed that way.

I was curious to see a neighborhood that sported different cultures and to see how things were done there.  Going to the Brick Lane and potentially their market sounded really interesting.  What I didn't know is that this was also a decent place for clothing, both vintage and nouveau designer!!!  What a find!

I'm not personally a clothes horse and I did actually pack rather tightly, so I didn't arrive with the intent to purchase a lot of clothing items, but after a visit into a small Vintage shop, which was rather lovely and clean (not the Vintage junk type shop, which can offer just as many gems as a presentation style one) and had plenty from 60s and 70s (which I guess is vintage now), from the go-go boots and the oddly colored fabrics, oh and the polka dot dresses, MANY of them.

My friend was sifting through the fur items.  I'm less inclined to actively purchase fur and leather, but do occasionally find leather in my wardrobe in the manner of shoes and belts.  She was thinking that in terms of fur, if you like it, it would be better to reuse and rewear something that was so precious.  She didn't buy anything, but they did have neat cravatte type neckwear in vintage fur.  I was looking at the jewelry, which was way too big and baubly.  Then I looked at scarves, which appeared to be kind of modern.  The boots looked like they were from the 80s, which is actually my childhood, so I decided that it wasn't actually vintage.  What I did like, though, was the plates and cups which were looking fairly teal and chartreuse and a creamy white.  It made me think of early 60s, but I can't be sure.  This was for sale, but they had a very limited supply of kitchenware.

We passed another vintage store that appeared to have more boots, then there was one of those vintage shops that had more of the junk appearance, where you had to go in with rolled up sleeves to find your precious items.

At this point, I was starving.  By pure accident, I saw the little take-away bakery, Beigel Bake, which struck a memory.  I had read about it in my little Lonely Planet guide, which I had had in my bag.  I wasn't looking for it especially, but I was finding when I was especially hungry made for a very fortuitous coincedence!

Did I get a beigel?  No.  I was feeling like something a little bit more hearty.  I was told once that bagels are specifically American, so I had no idea what a beigel was.  Really, I should have tried one.  There were plenty of other baked goods.  But I went for an apple turnover instead.  And it was an insanely good apple turnover!

Next, we walked down the street and went into Laden's shop.  (I thought it was funny because "Laden" in German has something to do with shops, but Michelle wondered if it was a last name of anyone...hmmm.)  It was chock full of dresses, coats, tops, bottoms, everything...and they were all done up by new designers.  Again, no special interest in clothing, but was curious to see what was going on.  So, we wandered right in.

I didn't see much of note until just about before I was ready to leave.  I saw this little dress made from Indian silk.  I tried it on in the dressing room and voila!  It actually fit, even though it appeared to be cut on the bias (which always acts funny on me).  It was 20 pounds, which was a fair enough price.  So I got it!  I have yet to wear it, but I know I can wear it as a dress or over slacks.

Michelle got a bustier to wear for that evening.  She likes bustiers so it was a natural buy.

After this, we were both starving.  Apparently trying on 1 garment was really working up an appetite.  :D  I was curious about Indian food, but the closest place we saw was a Doner Kebap place.  I had remembered Doner Kebaps from Germany as being sensationally good, in a gyro sort of way...and the cream sauce!  Well, this one was a little tiny take-away shop, with some seats in case you couldn't just take it.  We ordered a Doner Kebap each and munched on it in the street.

I saw a street called Quaker Street and I had Michelle take a picture of me under this sign.  I wonder if this was formerly a Quaker Quarter???  (Incidentally, my parents and aunt & uncle stayed in London in a place called Penn Club in Russell Square, which was named after William Penn.  I believe it was a Quaker run accomodation.  I kept calling it the Penn House, by accident.)

We moved on to the Petticoat Lane Market, which looked rather like what my friend Michelle called, "a boot sale".  In American terms, boot sale translates to flea market or swap meet, but this didn't appear to be that.  There were many of those racks like one might find at a department store of jeans and tops and dresses, standing out in the street.  Michelle and I were wondering how these folks would get this kind of merchadise because it all seemed to be on the up-and-up.  She wondered if perhaps these were slightly flawed garments or perhaps last years stuff or something.  It all looked pretty "department store" to me.

Then it began to rain.  We put up our umbrellas and headed for a mall area which was called the actual Brick Lane market.  This was in a covered area that looked fairly modern.  Now that would be closer to flea market.  Found treasures, so to speak.  A little bit further along, and we found charmingly designed arts & crafts, and hats and sunglasses, etc.  For those that frequent markets, you'll get a good sense of things once I mention the sunglasses.  :D

After we escaped the rain while sipping tea at a local tea shoppe, we moved to see Leadenhall Market.  Leadenhall Market was on...Leadenhall Street, amazingly enough.  The rain had stopped enough.

Alas, the market was gone by then and it was getting dark.  But Leadenhall Street Market was a market where the Harry Potter movies had chosen to film for their "Diagon Alley" location, where the book's characters purchased their schoolbooks and so on.  It has a very distinctive Victorian look.

The shops in Leadenhall Market were same ol' same ol' high street shops, which I call, in American terms, mall boutique shops.  That was okay, but less than exciting.  I think we had arrived too late for the actual market.  Even though I had read that the market closed at 4:30pm, I believe it probably closed earlier than that.  There was no one about, but some folks cleaning up their empty little stalls.  You couldn't even tell what they had been selling.  Wah!

Well, we had done quite a lot in this one day already, so it was okay.  We turned the corner and discovered this gigantic building with giant patina-ed bronze and pewter-colored futuristic tubing and pipes running up the side...I felt like I was in a movie similiar to "Metropolis"!  I was enamoured by the sharp contrast between the Victorian Leadenhall Market area and the uber-futuristic Insurance building (whose name I forget) that felt slightly "1984".  (I don't know why I'm thinking of those two pieces of futuristic literature, but it's what came to mind!)

(still typing)