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London Markets; That's Why I Love London
By Jung Hana, Guest Reporter
Living in London, I feel myself totally sympathizing with a famous phrase about London-‘If you are fed up with London, you can’t find any other places more interesting anywhere’. When I first I came here, everything seemed like it was just passing by me. Even though I'm going to stay here for a year, whenever I have time to walk around downtown London, I feel like a tourist seeing everything in a short time. Suddenly, I found myself being isolated from London life, so I really needed something to give me a taste of what London life is seriously like.
By googling, I discovered a map of 20 popular London markets. Every respective market shows London is a melting-pot with diverse nationalities or freakish new cultures. I’m going to tell you about some markets here chosen for your future trip to London or for your curiosity about what made me change.
The most popular market is Camden Lock located in north London. Actually, the first time I visited here was the day I went to my first part-time job selling accessories. So, I could naturally learn about its attractions by getting along with other merchants and selling our products to tourists. They sold everything from real high-quality products to cheaper but, unique ones. There were also restaurants. From late evening, people took away food and beer to enjoy their time shopping. It looked like they thought the market was a place to spend spare time and it was more than just a product trading place. More interestingly, I could see the walls around the market were full of graffiti painted by teenagers and there were also strange animal statues around just for fun. The whole market was like a festival.
The place where I go almost every Friday evening is Covent Garden. It is located near Trafalgar Square in central London. Fridays and weekends are the peak days of this market and they are especially busy because there are various performers. I can choose what I want to enjoy. I love Lucy, a famous street singer whose voice is like James Moraz. So, I check the time he has a gig before going to the market. There are also luxury brand shops, personal shops, British tea shops and restaurants that are all in stalls grouped together around the market. In the center, cool ice cream and homemade pastries are sold. So, Convent Garden is a complex market that meets everybody’s tastes: delicious foods, gigs, clothes, cosmetics and souvenirs at a wide range of prices.
Moving to the end of London Bridge you can find local grocery markets, Borough Market and Jubilee Market. Sometimes, I go grocery shopping here to get fresh, local food such as cheese, sausage, my favorite carrot cake, brownies and olives. It is literally just under the over ground rail tracks. While shopping I could hear the sound of trains passing above my head. I think it is the charm of any market installed in a small area and plays its role as if it were in the past. One old British man was selling Korean tea and teacups there. It was a great pleasure to see him in London. The man recognized me staring at his products with a smile and talked to me passing me a cup of tea. “Are you Korean? I really like Korean tea. It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Seeing something from Korea in a foreign area always makes me feel glad and proud. With great pride, every merchant was busy attending to the customers. If you come here, you can also have a raw oyster too, Korean style.
Korean and London markets absolutely have things in common in that both reflect their culture and their lives. But, the difference I found here is that Londoners love their market in a different way. It seems to me that they have flexible thoughts about it as they regard it as not only a place to get groceries but, also the place they have fun. Also, they don’t cling to only British style and accept the many other national cultures in the market that allow the people easy access to it. People can even try foods. Markets are set up in small or big sizes everywhere and most of the merchants are younger than the average age of Korean’s. Furthermore, they have their own characteristics to make them special, such as varying the products, moods and locations. That’s why London markets attract people from all over the world. Now, I think I don’t need to push myself to be involved among them. From London market, I learned to be as I am and just see others as they are. I want to say if given the luck of the weather when you’re in London, it would definitely be perfect to enjoy the market and see how the people live in London
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