Brixton Market

There are a multitude of reasons to love Brixton Market. It’s loud. It’s cluttered and intense, a hot mess of African and Caribbean stalls selling fresh produce, old and new records and colourful threads. You will get lost. You will get confused, and you will get excited. You will end up scarfing down hot Jamaican patties slathered in searing pepper sauce in the cold Brixton air. And you will have a great time.

Though it’s visited often by curious Londoners and the odd tourist, the market remains fiercely independent and is strictly a community affair. Unsurprisingly, the neighbourhood that introduced its own local currency (the Brixton pound) to keep money within the community has one of the most distinctive markets in the entire city. You’re not going to find anything like this at Borough or Spitalfields.

Vegetables and fruit are unfamiliar and make Chinatown’s exotica look like apples and oranges; haircare products and salons lie elbow to elbow with Caribbean bakeries, and halal butchers and meat purveyors sell everything from organic lamb to goat meat and live snails. Being a local market, prices are low and you’ll pick up some great bargains. Bartering is positively encouraged, keeping both atmosphere and trade lively – no two visits are ever the same.

In the adjacent arcades lie treasures. Newly trendy Brixton Village Market has some of the city’s most talked about eateries, preparing delicious homecooked Italian and Thai meals, and somewhere in the maze of shops, vans and stalls lies Franco Manca for cheap-as-chips but absolutely delicious Neapolitan pizzas pulled straight out of meltingly-hot wood ovens.

Opening hours: Monday - Saturday: 0800 - 1800, Wednesday: 0800 - 15:00, closed Sundays.

Nearest Tube: Brixton