Broadway Market

The lowdown

Broadway Market is one of east London's great Saturday rituals. A short pedestrian-friendly street that fills, once a week, with around a hundred stalls of street food, fresh produce, flowers, books and independent makers, all free to wander and graze your way along.

It has been a market street since Victorian times, fell quiet for decades and was revived in the 2000s into the heaving, slightly hip institution it is now. The food is the obvious draw, but the permanent shops, cafes and a very good pub or two along the street are half the appeal.

Its best feature is what sits at either end. London Fields, a lovely park with a heated lido, is at the top, and the Regent's Canal towpath is at the bottom, so you can buy lunch and walk it off by the water or sprawl on the grass.