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The real hub of the East End; lots of great bargains to be had; a great atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon.
Victoria Park just down the road to sit and unwind in!
just off Parnell road; Bow; E3
B2 is a new retail store specialising in selected brands of urban toys, clothing, street art, books and magazines. The shop also houses the UK's first manga library, filled with Japanese language manga books - the store told me that English language books will be arriving January 2008.
B2 is part of Bodhi gallery and cafe. The gallery has a fast turn around of contemporary art shows. It's turning into a nice cultural centre of art, food and shopping.
B2 / Bodhi
214 Brick Lane, London E1 6SA
t. 020 7749 0750
www.bodhi-uk.com
tube: Liverpool St, Aldgate East, Bethnal Green.
One of the most popular places in London for shopping and having fun with the whole family on a sunny weekend. Walk up and down Camden High Street and have a snack in the numerous pubs and cafes or take a canal boat trip.
www.hotelara.com/travel/uk/england/london-shops-shopping.html
If you're an active outdoors-type, New Oxygen has a really useful beginners' surf guide and you can pick up your sunscreen and surf gear too.
Hi,
Many resorts have started asking for biodegradable sunscreen.
You can buy online at www.blockshop.co.uk and save searching around at the airport.
Hotonearth.co.uk is a gobal warming awareness site which includes a shopping directory featuring travel companies. For every purchase you make from one of these retailers via the site, a percentage of your payment is passed onto a carbon offsetting scheme. You pay no extra than you would from shopping from this travel company normally; the donation comes from the store themselves.
You can even choose from a list of Project Partners which scheme you support.
Debate rages about the effectiveness of Carbon Offsetting - but every little helps.
It is a monthly fetish event held in Central London for alternative designers and avante garde fashion people.
I found it at www.londonfetishfair.co.uk
Tel: 0207 916 8360
I know it's a naff choice but honestly the ice cream there is worth the visit. These Italian guys run it and you can request a flavour you want in advance and they'll prepare it for you. Last time I went I tried blood orange sorbet which was amazing!
Harrod's, London. Knightsbridge Tube Station
If you are left handed like me this is the shop for you. They have loads of things to make your life easier and every thing you might need for school. It’s not just a kids shop though it’s a shop for all us Lefties. You could spend many hours wondering around in amazement at all the products they have and definitely some you would never even thought of.
They have a saying and it goes like this "As the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body then only the left-handers are in their right minds!"
From Neill Andrew (age 12).
Fantastic online retailer of sun protection kit which I couldn't find in the high street for the kids. Really helpful lady on the phone and I got it really quickly.
Web address is www.beachfactory.com and London phone number 020 8332 7467
Seriously the place to be in London for the youth today. This is no ordinary market selling rubbish from the back of someone's truck. These are seven highly unique and exclusive retail venues. Everything happens here and you can buy anything from the newest clothing straight from Paris to the oldest records, straight from someone's garage. You will find food from all around the world, with over three hundred stalls devoted to Chinese, Indian, Italian, Malasian, Mexican, American and many many more. You will also find the most interesting mix of people from all walks of life.
Camden Market is situated by Camden Lock. Easy to get to on the tube, get off at Camden Town and you will be in the middle of the market. You can also get there by bus. Best day to go is on a Sunday as this is when all of the markets are open.
A fab little designer bikini boutique selling all the latest south american brands from Ondademar, Vix and Salinas.
13 Newburgh Street
London
W1F 7RS
Lovely street in Clerkenwell lined with independent shops and very good restaurants (Exmouth Market's the home of Moro, a restaurant that kick-started the regeneration of the street ten years ago).
When I strolled down recently there was a new outdoor food and craft market. I was very very pleased to see that Neals Yard Cheese had a stall as usually you have to trek to Covent Garden or Borough market for their cheeses. Was lovely to be able to buy some really good, and not ridiculously priced food but wihout the business of some of London's other markets. I think the market's only there on Friday and Saturday; a lovely way to while away a weekend afternoon, especially as there are lots of tasting opportunities and a really good mix of well-known companies and tiny cottage industries.
Off Rosebery Avenue near Farringdon Road.
Nearest Tube is Farringdon
website is www.exmouthmarket.co.uk
If you're looking for reasonable kids’ ski wear, head straight to TK Maxx. I recently bought my son a designer jacket that had retailed at £160 for £25! A complete bargain that I'll be able to sell on ebay when he grows out of it!
One of my favourite things about London is that you can pick up the Sunday papers on Saturday night.
So you can stay in your pyjamas for all of Sunday.
I don't think that this is a comprehensive list but you can definitely get them from outside Burger King by Marble Arch tube exit, Liverpool Street station by the tube, on the Strand in front of Charing Cross station and on Brick Lane near the bagel shops.
Harrods, a magnet for the tourists. Whatever you think of the store itself, the Food Halls are a wonder in themselves and not to be missed! They are historically Listed in their own right, due to the wonderful decorative wall tiles.
The selection of food and wines are among the best in London, and not always as expensive as you might think. And make sure you visit the wet fish section, truly spectacular!
Harrods Ltd, SW1
Nearest tube, Knightsbridge (Piccadilly Line).
Go to Borough Market in Southwark, London, for its fresh food and friendly atmosphere. It's a breath of the countryside in an urban setting.
It's like nowhere else in London. Some might say sanitised and boring, but I'd disagree. If you're tired of the hustle and bustle of central London hop on the Jubilee line, or, even better, the DLR, and come over. Great waterside eating and drinking (dimsum at Royal China is fantastic, and not too costly), super tall buildings, and expensive subterreanean shops. Whilst it is certainly not the weekend ghost town of earlier years, it still feels much calmer than London proper on a Saturday or Sunday.
In the summer especially there are often good free events in the small parks that are dotted around, such as concerts on Friday evenings, and films sometimes on Saturdays.
If you're coming with children then combine your visit with Mudchute City Farm down in the Isle of Dogs. It has cows, goats and guinea pigs, plus a riding school.
www.mycanarywharf.com/whatson/calendar.html;
Royal China: tel - 0207 719 0888;
www.royalchinagroup.co.uk
Hate the corporate tat of Oxford Street? Fed up with the tourists in Covent Garden? Too old for Camden Lock, but still want that eclectic edge? Try Church Street. Several chintzy, eclectic little boutiques and bric a brac shops, a couple of decent second hand bookshops, and loads of decent ethnic restaurants (Indian and Thai particularly well represented).
Seven Sisters tube, then a 243, 149, 73 or 76 bus. Alternatively, the overland station at Stoke Newington
Sunday flower market, good for buying fresh flowers and plants, but also great just to walk about. Plenty of cafes and shops to poke about in too, and within walking distance of Brick Lane (for a curry) or Kingsland Road (for Vietnamese).
Columbia Road, Hackney E2
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