Columbia Road Flower Market

The market descends from a Saturday trade that moved to Sunday in the nineteenth century to accommodate Jewish traders who observed Saturday as the sabbath, and it now runs one morning a week, roughly eight until three, along a single street of Victorian shopfronts. Around sixty stalls sell cut flowers, bedding plants, shrubs, bulbs and trees, and the pricing has a rhythm: full price early, and from about one o'clock traders begin shouting reductions to clear stock, which is when the street is loudest and the bargains real. The shops behind the stalls open only on Sunday too and sell garden goods, ceramics and food. It is genuinely a local market that visitors have found rather than one built for them.

What you actually see

• The single street - sixty stalls packed along a Victorian terrace.
• The end-of-day shouting - traders calling reductions from about one o'clock.
• The Sunday-only shops - shopfronts that open for this morning alone.
• The plants - cut flowers, bedding, shrubs and trees rather than souvenirs.

When to go

Sunday mornings only, roughly eight to three; arrive before nine for space to move or after one for the price reductions. Spring and early summer bring the fullest stock. It runs in all weather.

Honest expectations

The street becomes almost impassable between ten and midday, moving at a shuffle. Everything is closed six days a week. Plants must be carried home through crowds and on public transport, which is harder than it sounds.

Nearby

Brick Lane and Shoreditch lie south; Broadway Market is a short walk east.