London has so many interesting markets that you can visit a new one every weekend of the year. Every neighborhood will definitely have either a well known market like Borough market or Greenwich Market or a humble and local Sunday farmers market.
This Sunday was a cloudy day, but quite dry, so I decided to do my weekend long walk. Being an East Londoner now for two years, I have been thinking since long to explore the neighbourhood of Bermondsey. So I planned to walk from Greenwich to Bermondsey. Given I would be walking to reach there by lunchtime, I googled to find some markets in the area and read about Maltby Street Market. I loved the pictures on their website and decided to head there.
Maltby street market is in Bermondsey in a narrow alley called ‘Ropewalk’. There are Victorian railway arches on one side which houses cafes and restaurants. Its a very unique setting, the market is like compressed in the far corner of the neighbourhood in a small alley. There are large flags giving it a very colorful canopy.
So what all do we get in this market?
Today I browsed through its 20-30 stalls which were majorly street food. There were few stalls offering fresh produce as well; there are offering fine wines, there is a carvery as well. Overall it looks like a well curated street food market, really a good one.
I cannot recall all the names, but I did notice few Vietnamese and Chinese stalls, there was Bad Brownie (oh love their decadent chocolate and nut ones), Cheese Truck, Beefstakes, Craft Coffee, Gyoza Guys which had a really long queue. There was a stall of Waffles which is in my feature image, they really looked smashing. Bangers was another joint which had British sausages stuffed in various kind of breads, a picture below of the stall. I think there was lot of choice for a weekend lunch.
I was really confused making a decision and was literally dying of hunger. I first stood in the queue of Gyoza, then changed my mind to an Ethopian food stall, then finally I made a wonderful high calorie decision, yes to go for that killer sandwich of Cheese Truck. It was so tempting though it had ‘calories’ screaming of it. But I could’nt resist and you can see below my carby lunch being prepared by a really fit good looking dude (Wonder what he had for his lunch..)
The market is in such a narrow alley crowded with people that it was really hard to click pictures. Either you cannot get the right length or you cannot get the right angle and when you get both you have people in front of you. However I managed few which are here for you to enjoy.
Maltby Street Market is a great brunch spot on a weekend if you are around Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Bermondsey, Canada Water, Surrey Quays or Southwark.
FACTBOX
Address : Maltby Street Market, Ropewalk, Bermondsey, SE13PA
Nearest station : Bermondsey Tube station
Entry : Free
Thumbs up : Great street food, great ambiance, decently priced
Thumbs down: Very crowded, no place to really sit and eat your takeaways
What’s next? : After my carby lunch, I walked to Tower Bridge, its about 20 min walk. You can also explore other places in Bermondsey area or Walk to Southwark and London Bridge area.
