The road from The Regent’s Canal to London Fields used to be a desolate road filled with rundown corner shops, a Pie&Mash and an old man’s pub. Then the area started to get gentrified with the overflow from Shoreditch and Hoxton moving into the area. Now The Broadway Market is the place to spend your Saturday, so last weekend, if you have seen our TikTok, that’s what we did…
The Victorian road of terraced houses slowly fell into the desolate and dreary, the few bastions of hope ploughed on through. Cooke’s Pie & Mash was one of the last of the great British traditional eateries with the marble tables and the ornate green signage outside, but the rest of the road was dirty, boarded up and left to slowly die. Then the overflow of the Hoxton Trendies came looking for a nicer place to live, the rundown houses next to the large open fields were the perfect place for the media and the city types to get their hands on and turn into the new family home, or to ‘Flip’ for a tidy profit. With the influx of new blood, The Broadway Market became a strange road, the Costcutters and the Betting Shops still held on, but little boutiques, indie bookshops and Coffee Shops started to sprout in the cracks. During the week, the road is still overrun with the wastrels, the drug-addled and the unwashed, begging for a pound. On Saturday morning, that all changes, the pedestrianised road is swept clean of the usual suspects and in come the stalls, barrows and food trucks galore.
By 10 am the road is a buzz with food from all over the world: Vietnamese coffee, Philadelphia Cheese Steaks, Chinese, Mexican, Indian curries, Juice made from Sugar Cane and Lemons, there is even a Korean Hotteok stall, much to Bob’s total contentment! By the time we got there at 2 pm (better late than never!) The road was swamped, the pub was filled to overflowing, stalls were already selling out of their secondhand clothes, nick-knacks and homemade pickles. The food stalls were cooking away, the staff melting inside the tents from the ovens on the hottest day of the year (or just another day, this summer!) and we wandered the couple hundred metres, taking it all in and trying to decide between a juice or a alcoholic beverage, a pastry or an ice cream, a hand made picture frame or a 3d printed dragon.
In the end we settled first for a Vegan Ice-Cream Sandwich from Crumb. The cookie shop in Camden Passage’s Ice-cream vending bike stationed at the London Fields end outside the Cat & Mutton pub.
We have been following Amy’s adventures on TikTok as she tried to get the box bike out, and selling the Vegan Ice Cream was a revelation. Being Lactose intolerant and Veggie/Vegan really hinders buying ice cream for less than £20 a go! So when Amy said she was selling two OG Chocolate Chip Cookies with a wedge of Vanilla ice cream in between, we had to try it, and as we sat on the dust that had once been grass in London Fields and licked, nibbled, and devoured the first treat of the day, it was worth the trip. We just had to tell you about it so that you too can get one ASAP!
Having consumed the sandwich before it melted between our fingers, we headed back in for the next round. Juice and a Hotteok and Bob’s excuse to finally talk to someone in Korean in London.
Then we sought out a drink, the Sugar Cane juice looked good, but at £20 a glass it could remain where it was. Instead we tried the Pink Lemonade from the Hispanic vendor and the Watermelon, Lime and Coconut juice from the Indian vendor and of course Bob’s scolding hot Korean sweet pancake cake thing!
We perused the cafés and bars, coffee shops and the pub, but decided we had had enough and the prices were a little steep for a Saturday afternoon, plus we had consumed enough!
An hour after arriving, we wandered across the dust bowl of the once green space and headed home, filled on sweet treats and without buying a potted plant or a picture frame that looked like a school project for £45!
In all, a pleasant afternoon in the heat and something different to do on a Saturday afternoon, than repot plants or walk the dogs.
Have you ventured along Broadway Market recently? If not, go, go, go, before it gets cold – if that’s ever going to happen again! If you have, what’s your favourite stall, shop, restaurant? Tell us in the comments below.
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