The Borough Market is very close to our hotel, off Southwark Street near London Bridge, and it is one of the best food markets we’ve ever visted.
A maze of tiny paths and squares under the railway arches is filled with food vendors and specialty stores of all kinds, open mainly during the day. In the surrounding laneways are many small restaurants and pubs that open into the street during the evenings.
On their web site they claim this market has existed “in one form or another” for about 1,000 years. A vague claim yet I am duly impressed.
The sheer vibrancy and variety of the things on offer at the market has lured us back numerous times. We enjoyed koshari from Koshari Street, coffee from the Colombian Coffee Company, and Spanish tapas from Brindisa.
On our last visit, after a long day of touristing, we wanted to sit down to a good meal with good beer. Luckily, we stumbled across the Globe Tavern in the middle of the market, and it turned out to be one of the best meals of our trip. The building is two stories tall, with a boisterous pub on the ground floor and this quieter restaurant on the second floor.
All the ingredients for the meals are from the market, and the open kitchen lets you see the chef in action.
I enjoyed my Beef, beer pickled onions, savoy cabbage, sourdough, beer sauce while Josie loved her Jersey royals, courgette, borage, wet garlic, lemon courgette aioli.
On our way to and from the Borough Market we repeatedly walked past a giant building on Southwark Street. It turned out to be the Hop Exchange, which used to be the central place in London where all beer hops were traded, coming in and out on rail (through Waterloo station) and by boat (via the nearby Thames).
Addendum: I later completed this acrylic and ink painting of the Borough Market based on our vacation photos. I was inspired to do so after the terrorist attack that took place there in June of 2017. I wanted to reinforce how much we enjoyed the place before our fond memories were forever associated with this later event.
