Shoreditch & Spitalfields
The East End's front line: Huguenot silk-weavers' houses, a Bengali high street, Sunday markets, street art on every wall, and the densest concentration of good new restaurants and world-ranked cocktail bars in London.
Who it's for: Eaters and drinkers who want the current scene rather than the institutions. Sunday-market people. Vintage shoppers. Anyone who'd rather see London changing than London preserved.
Things to know
- Sunday is the day. Columbia Road Flower Market, the Brick Lane markets, Spitalfields and Petticoat Lane all run on Sunday and the whole district is at full volume. Every other day it's a fraction of that.
- Columbia Road looks best before 10am. After that it's shoulder to shoulder; near closing time around 3pm, traders slash prices to avoid carrying stock home.
- Old Spitalfields Market runs daily with different themes — Thursday is the antiques market and starts at 8am, which is the one worth setting an alarm for.
- Fournier Street and Folgate Street are lined with original Huguenot silk-weavers' houses from the 1720s. Look for the wide top-floor windows, built to light the looms.
- The building at the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street has been a Huguenot chapel, a synagogue and a mosque in turn. The sundial on its wall reads 'Umbra Sumus' — we are shadows.
- Restaurants here are small, walk-in-heavy and fill early. Brat, Manteca and Singburi all need booking well ahead; Smokestak and Smoking Goat are more forgiving.
- The street art changes constantly and is genuinely worth walking for — Hanbury Street, Redchurch Street, Rivington Street and the alleys off Brick Lane are the concentrations.
- Beigel Bake on Brick Lane is open 24 hours a day, every day, and a salt beef bagel there at 3am is one of London's defining experiences.