Columbia Road

Columbia Road is shaped like a wide V, with the ends of both arms ending up on Hackney Road, about ten minutes' walk from home. It's pretty nondescript for most of the week - oh, there are some nice enough shops there, but there are a few of THOSE around London - no; what makes it special are Sundays. For on Sundays, there's a wonderful flower market there; stalls of flowers and plants and vines and small shrubs and trees lining the street for what seems like miles; East End stallholders all vying with one another for your business ('one for four pahnd; free for a tenner! lovely pansies; six pahnd a tray; I'll frow in a extra one wiv it; can't say fairer'n'at'), cafes selling aromatic coffee and bagels and pastries; pubs offering a fry-up (aka the 'Full English'); buskers; second-hand stores; the lot. People flock from everywhere; it's always packed. And all day on Sunday, wherever you are around Hackney, if you see a guy on a bike riding somewhat erratically whilst holding a massive bunch of tulips under one arm, or a young couple walking slowly, with frequent stops to put down the weeping fig in the black glazed pot, or an old lady with a spray of holly across the top of the shopping trolley she's trundling, you know they've been to Columbia Road.