Borough Market vs. Camden Market
As you may be able to tell from that post, I didn't like markets and had no desire to go back. However, when touring with other people, you sometimes do things you would not chose to do if you were on your own. And sometime you find that this stretches you and you like things you didn't think you would like.
Borough Market (Revisited)
Mom wanted to visit a market while she was here, so I figured Borough Market would be the best, particularly for what I thought she was looking for-- a food market. You may recall that I last visited Borough Market on a Saturday. Mom and Dad and I went on Thursday, and it made all the difference!
You could actually walk through the market, you didn't have to fight your way through. Also, since there were less people, you could actually see what the vendors were selling. What a novel thought!
It was neat to poke around and explore. I have learned something about myself in my time here, though: I don't like window-shopping. It seems disingenuous, and it feels inconsiderate. It seems kind of rude to take up room in a store just to look at things when I know I'm probably not going to buy anything. And I shouldn't go touching everything in the store when I'm not going to make a purchase.
I know that I'm probably ridiculous and illogical. Business owners know that window shopping is part of the game, but I also sympathize with them, because they are there to make money, not to enjoy a free and pleasant tourist experience for me. So I had to let go of that and/or just learn to admire from a distance.
It is a lovely market! Try to avoid Saturdays, unless (like my husband) you love crowds. I believe that the full market is open Thursday-Saturday, but the vendors with ready-to-eat food are open all week (not Sunday?) for lunch. I also feel that spending time at a market is an investment-- investing time and energy into exploring all the vendors, comparing prices, tasting a few things, buying a few things, and figuring out which vendors you would want to buy from on an ongoing basis. Since I'm not going to live here on an ongoing basis, I didn't really want to make that investment. But I know I'm weird and people don't always approach things the same way I do.
Spitalfields Market
This market was on Leah's list of things she wanted to do, because she loved it when she was here as a student. She said Sunday was the best day to go, so Tim and I met them after church at Liverpool Street Station, and walked there. When we got there, Leah apologized to Tim.
"Tim, I'm sorry... this is kind of a girly market."
As we walked through the stalls, we realized that that is a great way to explain it. Clothing, jewelry, home décor... not really Tim's cup of tea. I did see a certain sweater with a giraffe on it that I really wanted, but talked myself out of it, since it was over £20. We did find a neat little chocolate shop, and looked around in there for a bit. Considering my thoughts above about window-shopping, the only thing to do to sooth my conscience for having spent so much time in the store, tasting a sample, and even taking the time of the sales clerk, was to buy some chocolate. We picked out several types of truffles to try and then tasted them. All. And it was delicious.
My assessment of Spitalfields is this:
If you are a girl (or a fashion-conscious male) then you will probably enjoy it, if you enjoy shopping. Prices seems pretty reasonable, so you don't need to mentally prepare yourself for window shopping. But you should prepare yourself to suddenly find things you never knew you needed until you saw it, life giraffe sweaters.
Worth noting, though: there were a lot of good places to eat! Not street-food type vendors, but actual restaurants.
Camden Market (Revisited)
In my first assessment of Camden Market (after having been there twice), I did not exactly give it a glowing review. Each time I returned to Borough Market, I liked it more and more. Each time I returned to Camden Market, I hated it more and more. And I didn't start out liking it a whole lot.
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| Tim and I during our first visit to Camden Market, back in the early days |
However, Leah showed me a part of the market I had never been to before, which was much nicer than the part I had been going to (Camden Market is HUGE). While it like it better, I was still fed up with crowds, so I still didn't love it. There were some ladies giving chair massages, and they had never looked so tempting! Which is saying something, because chair massages always look tempting to me, but I have never indulged. (Should I? Its kind of on my bucket list.)
Once again, I'm sure most of you don't have the psychological issues associated with markets that I do (window-shopping issues, crowd issues, and over-analyzing payoff of the investment) so I'm sure most of you would enjoy these markets. All opinions expressed are my own, and should probably in no way affect your decisions about what to do or see should you take a trip to London.
I never realized you had such a, um, unusual view of window shopping. Does this mean you felt guilty in New Orleans in all the stores I dragged you into to look around? Having worked in a retail store, a lot of people who were window shopping did sometimes see something they wanted and bought it even if they weren't necessarily looking for something when they walked in. If that makes you feel better.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember going into many stores in New Orleans. And no, it didn't bother me, because either I thought we were in there because you were going to buy something, or there were so many other people in there that I could fly below the radar. Wait...that makes me sound like a shoplifter.
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