Brrrr in Borough Market and Beyond: A Photo Walk

There are a few reasons why I love a good lazy Saturday afternoon browsing the stalls in Borough Market.

The smells, for one, are reason enough to return time and again – melted cheese bubbling and browning on fresh bread, Summer scents of sweet red strawberries and perfect plump tomatoes, perfectly brewed coffee smells wafting out the door of Monmouth wrapping through the inevitable queue lined up around the corner.

The reason I ventured east a few weeks ago with Carolina and Leslie was mostly for their fabulous company but also for the food: roasted duck piled into fresh ciabatta rolls. Yum!

Can’t believe I haven’t had a chance to put these photos up yet! I’ve been busy building websites for my dad’s business, Sadler Garden Collections and now my brother’s Sadler Fence and Staining. My dad’s site is finally live if you want to stop by and see what I’ve been up to: Sadler Garden Collections.

The other site will probably take me the rest of the month to finish, but after that, the blog should be more alive! Anyway, throughout this entry are some of  my photos from that Saturday, finally.

Come along, I’ll take you on a little walk…

Curvy little narrow cobbled streets surround Borough Market and I love to explore them (not great in heels if you’re wondering).

You know the phrase “In the clink”? It came from the famous Clink Prison on Clink Street. It was burned down in the riots of 1780, and of course a tourist attraction in the form of a museum you can tour sits in it its place.

None the less, like much of London, it’s an area steeped in rich history. It’s also the location of some pretty popular films and TV shows: Oliver Twist, Doctor Who, Bridget Jones’s Diary and An American Werewolf in London all contain scenes filmed on Clink Street.

Just around the corner, in another nod to history is a replica of the Golden Hind, which circumnavigated the globe in the late 1500s, captained by Sir Francis Drake – one of those names that takes you back to childhood history classes.

It’s always surrounded by tourists (and people like me) pointing their cameras.

But it’s easy to see why. It’s colourful, first of all, but it also has lots of lovely little details.

On the other side of the market is the Southwark Cathedral, a beautiful building that is a little slice of history in its own right.

According to their website, “Southwark Cathedral is the oldest cathedral church building in London, and archaeological evidence shows there was Roman pagan worship here well before that.”

Near the side of the cathedral, just outside the market, there are a bunch of seats so we settled in there to eat our duck rolls, brushing the flour from the tops of the rolls off of our faces and coats every few minutes. Delicious!

With frozen fingers and toes, we wandered through the winding side streets in search of some tea and came across this little door (which is smaller than it looks) and an old Banksy piece next to it.

On the nearby Vinopolis Piazza is a fun, Crayola-coloured canopy of umbrellas.

I’m not entirely sure why they are there (feel free to enlighten me), but I think they’re pretty fabulous.

One more close up…

After an afternoon of constant girly chatter, giggles and tea, we parted ways and I decided to walk back to Chelsea for some fresh air. Took a few hours!

There was a lot to look at along the way. Architecture, mailboxes…

…some left over graffiti from the Olympics.

I wandered down The Cut, past the painted Lord Nelson pub.

Upper Marsh Street (where my favourite Scooter Caffe lives) and through the Leake Street graffiti tunnel.

There were tons of artists working away and of course the intoxicating scent of spray paint.

They’ve even painted the bins.

From there, I found myself dodging tourists on South Bank, but I stopped for a shot of good old big ben with one of the fish on the lampposts that line the river Thames.

From there, on over the Westminster Bridge where one of the lights on the corner had burned out. As a friend pointed out on Flickr, in that location you would think they’d have fixed it!

After that windy walk, I put the camera away and stuffed my freezing fingers into my pockets. You can see from this last photo what I mean. Brrrrrrrrr!

The end. Hope you all have a fantastic week ahead!