Task 22: Visit Columbia Road flower market

It was about 30 years ago when I first heard of Columbia Road flower market and I've been meaning to go for ages, once I could brace myself to be there for 8am on Sundays, when it opens. Including it as one of the challenges provided exactly the impetus I needed, and I was delighted when my friend Angela said she'd like to go too. Unfortunately she has been ill this year and not really up to long outings, so Peter good-naturedly agreed to go in her place (also the football season was about to start and he was possibly interested in getting some Brownie points). If you're reading this, Angela, I'd love to go again once you're better.

Columbia Market, in Tower Hamlets, was first established in 1869 by the heiress and philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, as a covered food market with 400 stalls. It never really got off the ground, partly because traders preferred the less regulated system of roadside pitches, and it closed less than 20 years later. The French Huguenot presence in the area fostered a demand for cut flowers and a flower market became established. Originally it opened on Saturdays but with the influx of Jewish immigrants this changed to Sundays, to accommodate their need not to trade on the Sabbath. It also gave Covent Garden and Spitalfields traders the opportunity to sell their leftover produce.

Following a long period of decline, the market started flourishing in the late 1960s with increasing interest in gardening programmes and it is now full of life and colour:

It has a cosmopolitan atmosphere, with many different nationalities - predominantly European - among the crowd. The main attraction is the flowers, shrubs and herbs, but there are also plenty of quirky little shops which are mostly open only on Sundays or by appointment:

Having failed to get there until about 10am, partly because it took a long time to find a parking space (there are no tube stations nearby, but the parking is free and there are some areas that aren't restricted to residents only), we decided to start with a coffee and a pastry. The weather was lovely and we found a vibrant Spanish restaurant with its doors and windows open to the sun, which was perfect for watching the local scene:

Suitably fortified, we wandered out to listen to the jazz, browse the shops and look at all the stalls. The colours of the flowers were wonderful and I was sorely tempted to buy some huge blue and white hydrangea heads, but decided there was no point while our house is full of building dust:

Having looked at every single stall - and there are a lot of them - we noticed an intriguing shop that seemed to be a combination of a specialist wine seller and laid back cafe. The coffee was in styrofoam cups but delicious, and we enjoyed sitting on cushioned benches at a long wooden table, imbibing the atmosphere along with the caffeine:

While Peter was trying not to think of how Newcastle's first match of the season was going (they lost), I decided it would be a good idea to look at all the stalls again and make a few purchases. With so much choice and such low prices, it wasn't easy to make up my mind. I bought a few plants and we went for lunch at an unusual Italian restaurant on the fringe of the market - the Stringray Globe. 

By the time we'd finished it was getting on for 3 o'clock and the traders had nearly finished packing away - the perfect opportunity to see if there were any bargains to be had. By then you could get 4 hydrangea heads instead of 3 for £10, and four bunches of cornflowers for only £5, but commonsense prevailed. On the other hand, it would have been daft not to buy a white orchid - admittedly a bit the worse for wear - for a mere £1. In the end I came home with the orchid, 2 penstemons in pink and mauve flushed with white, a Cambridge blue salvia and two pink purple fuchsias, for the princely sum of £8:

It was a lovely way of spending a sunny Sunday and I'd highly recommend it. Even if you aren't interested in buying any plants or flowers, it's a fascinating place to wander around. There's no need to get there as soon as it opens, as the traders have plenty of stock and you won't miss out if you arrive later. It's worth waiting for lunch until about 2 o'clock, when the cafes are more likely to have a free table, and then scooping up some extra last-minute bargains while the traders are packing away. I also found it intriguing reading about Angela Burdett-Coutts, who was a remarkable woman in so many ways, including proposing to the Duke of Wellington when she was 33 and he was 78. He declined, wishing her to marry someone younger who could offer her years of happiness together. This she did at the age of 67, when she married her 29 year old secretary, William Bartlett - probably not quite what the Iron Duke had in mind!