Borough, Maltby and Spitalfields - Visiting London's Best Markets

One of our favourite things about London, is the wide variety of Markets dotted around the City. A lot of our weekends are spent getting up early and exploring at least one market, whether it be a farmer's market, like Borough Market in London Bridge, or a clothing market like Spitalfields in the City, we love getting out and discovering new things.

Both of these markets were on our list of places to take Wendy, so one Saturday morning we got up super early and headed into London Bridge to visit Borough Market before the rest of London woke up.

We got off the tube at Mansion House and walked across Southwark Bridge and along the Southbank.

Looking back towards Southwark Bridge and St Paul's

The Southbank is always an amazing place to explore, there's always something going on and there's lots of good places to eat. A lot of London's big attractions are on the Southbank, the London Eye, the Tate and the Globe Theatre, plus at Christmas it's one of the best places to be, with a fantastic Christmas Market and ice skating rink.

There's also some really great street art and it's always fun to discover new street art somewhere outside of East London.

We stopped for some photos of The Golden Hinde, a big English Galleon ship that circumnavigated the world from 1577 to 1580.

Upon the ship's return to England, the Captain had plundered enough gold to pay off the Queen's entire foreign debt and he was bestowed with a knighthood ignoring the fact all the treasure had been stolen..

Borough Market is one of the oldest and largest food markets in London and sells almost any kind of food imaginable. Only open to the public from Thursday to Saturday, with Saturday having the biggest and busiest market.

If you can't get there before 11.00 a.m., or ideally before 10.00 a.m., it's not worth going. After that time it is absolutely rammed with people, locals and tourists alike, so that you can barely move, let alone explore the market at a leisurely pace.

We arrived just after 9.30 a.m. and stopped at a cafe for a coffee and some pastries before heading into the market.

We always stop at Borough Olives for some yummy Olive Tapenade and Red or Green Pesto. All freshly made and all delicious, we also picked up some good Olive Oil which we go through like crazy.

After wandering around the market for a while, sampling various meats, breads and cheeses we continued on towards Maltby Street Market in Bermondsey. It's a relatively new market which is quickly starting to rival Borough Market, especially for locals. It has a similar assortment of goodies, on a much smaller scale, but also without the crowds of people.

It's located in a great spot, underneath the old railway arches in Bermondsey, with a great Wine and Tapas bar that we haven't tried yet because we always arrive to early. I did try and convince everyone that 11.00 a.m. wasn't too early for Wine but it didn't work and we grabbed another coffee instead.

A must see on any visit to Maltby Street is St Johns Bakery, famous for their big doughnuts, filled with cream, jam or chocolate. We got there early enough that the line wasn't too big, so we joined the back and grabbed some doughnuts to take away and enjoy later.

Love these paparazzi style photos of Bradley and I taken by Wendy. We don't often have other people taking photos of us!

We continued through Bermondsey and back towards the Thames and Tower Bridge. Instead of coming down to the left of Tower Bridge, we came down on the right hand side, by Butlers Wharf, which is a lot quieter, and gives a great view of Tower Bridge with the Gherkin and St Paul's.

Butler's Wharf is a great place for exploring, with mostly only locals around. There are some amazing apartments built into old warehouses, with bridges linking all the wharves together.

This little bridge bounced up and down rather disconcertingly when anyone walked across it

We wandered along Shad Thames, a tiny cobbled street that used to be the largest warehouse complex in London. There are lots of bridges running overhead between buildings. The buildings have now been converted into flats on the top floors, with shops and restaurants on the ground floors.

We headed across Tower Bridge onto the other side of the Thames to take some more photos of the Bridge. I must have hundreds of photos of Tower Bridge from a hundred different angles. I never get tired of the view!

Can you spot me taking photo as always?

We continued walking alongside the Tower of London, and past Traitors Gate, which was how many prisoners were brought into the Tower to meet their fate..

We wandered through the backstreets from the Tower of London towards Spitalfields Market. Walking past the Gherkin we came across some big dinosaurs that looked a little lonely and in need of some company.

Making new friends

We stopped at the Japanese Canteen for lunch, one of the only places in London that does Chicken Sauce Katsu, one of the things I miss the most from New Zealand.

Yum yum!

East London has the best street art of anywhere in the City. The area around Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane especially has some amazing art.

We wandered around Spitalfields Market for a while, it has only recently been open on a Saturday, though the best time to visit is still for the Sunday market, which has an amazing collection of clothing and jewellery at various prices, visiting on a Saturday is much quieter with almost as many stalls.

Visiting on Sunday also has the bonus of the Sunday Upmarket across the road at Brick Lane, with a huge assortment of new and vintage clothing, but also a big food court with food stalls from all over the world. This is where we first discovered Kooky Bakes, one of our favourite cake places in London.

Unfortunately we were too busy looking around to take any photos, but I did gets lots of the street art surrounding Brick Lane!

Our last stop for the day was One New Change next to St Paul's Cathedral. I've mentioned before that the City of London is an actual nightmare during the day and the only time anyone should ever visit is on a weekend, when it's very easy to imagine a plague has wiped out the rest of London.

The rooftop at One New Change is still a relatively unknown secret. It's free to go up to the 6th floor, where you get amazing views across the City of London, from the Shard to the London Eye, though the best view is obviously of St Paul's. This is about as close as you're ever going to get without actually going inside the Cathedral. A beautiful place to end a great day out, with tired legs and a tummy full of delicious food!