London's famous markets : Camden

Prologue :

It is inevitable that you will get Singaporean mates or friend of a friend coming down to stay for a few days when you are in London. For the past 7 years, we were play hosts to countless friends, bunking on the sofa or inflatable bed. That bed was the honeymoon bed for two couples at least! We don't mind the slighest at the constant parade of guests ~ nay, this was the chance for us to get them to transport essential rempahs or spices from Singapore. My newest project is to document the wonderful places that we enjoyed in London.

What is London without its markets? There are plenty of markets to choose from; some mediocre mostly visited by locals in search of daily essentials while others are that little bit more special and known the world over. Who can forget references to London's famous markets like Portobello, shown in its full glory in films such as Notting Hill or Borough Market, the focal point of gourmands and foodies akin to Melbourne's Victoria Market?

The first ever market that we went to when we came here was Camden. And I was hooked. Gothic clothes stores cheek by jowl with vintage clothes stores, alternative medicine with tatoo and piercings, coffee chains with falafel stores, bean bags sofas and Indonesian carvings next to old antiques. The range of merchandise is staggering and when you mixed it all together, the atmosphere is electric.

On weekends, it can get so crowded that the Tube only allows outgoing passengers. Exit from the station and you are on Camden High Street with shops selling tshirts galore and bongs. Across the road, next to the Superdrug store is The Works, a great discount bookstore worth a nip into.

Walk down Camden High Street and check out the amusing decorations on the store fronts.

Also the famous Electric Ballroom, the infamous venue where bands as diverse as Sid Vicious and the Vicious Kids to Catatonia had played.

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There are small markets to the left and right but don't be fooled. Go the big Camden Lock Market right at the end. The entrance is right under the bridge as shown in the main picture above - you can't miss it.

Camden Lock market is a warren. I absolutely love exploring the two sides. It has changed a lot from how it looked 7 years ago but what hasn't? From the orange juice stall at the entrance, you can veer to the right - towards the food stalls. Beyond the food stalls are more shops and the "antique" or second hand clothes shops.

Go through this tunnel with its majestic-looking chandelier .....

..and you will find Cyberdog fashion store extraodinaire for the hard partying house music, techno loving groovers out there. With its strobing lights, loud music and smoke machine with a bar right smack at the entrance, I am sure many a tourists would have thought it is nightclub in full swing. Wander it and you'll find a store with many bizarre clothes and fashion accessories that are designed to glow or pulsate in the dark. A black tight t-shirt with a LED display on the chest is the tamest thing you can get.

The range of merchandise available has grown over the years that I have been there. No longer will you find just purveyors of second hand winter coats (cheaper in summer) or German Army uniforms. You'll be hard pressed to find genuine antiques too but there are a growing number of furniture and furnishing stores.



.. so yes, you can get Indonesian and Thailand produced furnishings right in the middle of London. The Thai store is amusingly called Farang, although I do not know how many English people would understand that it is Thai for caucasians.



I simply love this retro looking table and chairs, complete with the fake shrubbery. I wish I can magically teleport this to Singapore, along with a Smeg fridge which I covet so much.

You can spend a good few hours browsing through the shops. Retrace back your steps, stop to have a hot drink, lunch or a quick bite of freshly fried doughnuts and you can explore the other side of Camden. From the entrance, it is the fork to the left, into the courtyard. The stalls here sell anything from new Pop-Art print bags, to Orgasmatron head massager and on hot summer days, they sometimes sell strawberries with cream or chocolate.



Here's the barges that ply along Regent's Canal. Walk up the stairs to the indoor market where again you will find a cornucopia of goods on sale. I personally thought the lovely large prints of London sold at one of the stalls there are a wonderful souvenir but not cheap though.




..view of the shops in the indoor market from the first floor. The strings of fairly lighst are a festive touch for the Christmas season. So have a lovely time in Camden. You may not buy anything in the end but revel in the atmosphere.


Camden Market
Camden tube station on the Northern Line

Tips :

For families, it is advisable to go there earlier in the day to avoid the crush.

For those you wandered in later in the evening, the food stalls will reduced their prices to £1.50 per portion instead of the usual price of £4.50.

I have had mixed results from my visitors when I bring them. I once brought a family with makcik and pakcik (aunt and uncle) who were far more used to clean, sterile Singapore shopping centres. They spent a total of 5 minutes at the second hand clothes stores complaining of the "smell". They were happier in the souvenir shop, buying fake Chelsea and Man Utd beanies and magnets which you could find elsewhere in London. To each its own.

Primrose Hill

We had no plans last Saturday but didn't want Alia to watch tv all day long. A quick call to my mate and we planned to go to Primrose Hill; just behind Regent's Park. It had been touted as having the finest view of London but I wasn't overly impressed by it the first time I've been. It was only after a few years, we visited it again with our brand new kite and we totally fell in love with it.

There's a fab children's playground at the foot of the hill which was ideal for Alia and her friends to burn off some energy. We parents just parked ourselves on the picnic table and enjoy the little picnic we brought along.

We could have spent some more time there but decided to go up the hill before sundown. It is not a high hill but believe me you would be puffing by the time you get up. (..or maybe I was terribly unfit?)



The walk up to the peak....



People already on top looking at the view...




A poor picture of the view - you can actually see a number of London famous landmarks like the London Eye, The Gherkin, St. Pauls Cathedral and a tiny bit of Palace of Westminster.

We spread some canvas on the ground and enjoyed the view while the children ran up and down the slope (...ngeri sikit I.. takut they all jatuh tergolek..)



MH brought along his board which was a source of fun for the kids. They just love rolling down the hill with it. I voted to stay put because cannot tahan going down and coming back up again.




Sunset is much earlier nowadays so you can see the moon rising on the east while the sun goes down on the west. This is a picture of the moon, I kid you not.

This would be a perfect vantage point to see the fireworks tonight but that means that we would have to stay out in the cold for another 3 hours! so here's R's family packing up to go home.



We adjourned at R's house later for Madu Tiga, roti john and grilled chicken while the kids have fun playing sparklers and eating hot dogs.

Jenol's Jam-Packed Jaunt to Europe

My husband has been all smiles last week by the virtue that his old classmate from his days in VS, is finally here. It will be his penultimate Europe trip with jaunts into Paris, a five day sojourn to Germany complete with World Cup ticket (yes!yes!), a down-time few days in chilled out Amsterdam before flying into Liverpool to pay homage to Anfield, Goodison Park and Old Trafford. Manalah mat tu tak happy?

We kicked off with a whirlwind tour of London, on the hottest day of the year here. Even Jenol was surprised how hot it is here. 32º C! and unlike Singapore, no aircon shopping malls! Even our car has manual aircon i.e. bukak tingkap.

We started with a drive around Park Lane and Mayfair (which I affectionately call the Monopoly tour), passed the statue of Boudicea on Hyde Park roundabout, down Green Park where we passed the first ever Hard Rock Café in the world, passed Piccadilly Circus where statue of Eros stood. It is once said that if you sat there long enough, everyone in the world will pass by.

We turned off and passed theatre where Phantom of the Opera is still playing. I remember being mad about it in JC – finally watched it with YF after all those fan years and was slightly miffed at how cheesy it was. Still very watchable though.

We swung past Trafalgar Square with its lions. Lord Admiral Nelson is still being renovated, pass 10 Downing Street and down to Westminster Palace and Big Ben. Parked nearby St. James tube station and walked to Westminster Abbey (which is closed because of Sunday mass).

From the abbey, Westminster Palace with its House of Lords and House of Commons is a mere few steps away. I once went on the inside tour and was amazed at the difference between the gold and glitz of the House of Lords and the brown and green utilitarian look at the House of Commons. Who says there is no more class barriers in U.K.? Apparently, members of the Commonwealth nation sent gifts to U.K. and yes, I managed to check out Singapore’s gift which is a table and some chairs. How pragmatic but that’s Singapore for you.

We walked across the bridge to gawp at the London Eye. It was far too hot to stand in the queue. Jenol kept saying that it hardly moves but on closer inspection, you can see that it does. 30min. just to do one revolution!

After taking a few photos with Dali’s elephant and the London Eye pod on the background, we backtracked towards St. James Park. It was definitely much more pleasant to walk in the shade of the trees by the lake. When it is so hot like this, I often forget how cold it can get in London. Thank goodness for the shady trees in St. James park. It was so lovely to get out of the sun for a while and we walked down to Buckingham Palace with the strains of a marching band in the background.

Buckingham Palace was teeming with tourists, eager to get an eyeful of the Changing of the Guards. We decided that a quick peek is enough. Constitution Hill is bedecked with flags and we were in the middle of the rehearsal for next week's Trooping of the Colours for the Queen's birthday. Needless to say, the marching bands were very good; probably better than what we get at National Day Parades although I do miss hearing the commands in Malay.

Talking about Malay, we decided it was far too hot to traipse around London so we headed back to the car and took a well-deserved lunch at Mawar.