Broadway Market

Fin

Struck me as I strolled through it last Saturday lunch time that many mambers of this site would enjoy Broadway Market. A far less touristy version of Borough flanked by great cafes, clothing & furniture/design shops and a fantastic bookshop. For the record I'm a fan of the roast pork sandwiches from a stall near the near the canal, while the wife favours the Mushroom sandwiches right at the start of the market.

Best of all for us the 236 bus takes you straight there from Finsbury Park station in 20-30 mins. Handy.

Reg

Is there some kind of Broadway Market promotion campaign going on at the moment? Have the stall holders clubbed together and bunged some people to talk it up? <http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article5981248.ece>; I'm not that fussed by it myself. Top of the Pops is Columbia Road.

Bridget

Hi Fin,

I think its brilliant too. I love Climpson and Sons the coffee place and the turkish cafe near the canal that does great breakfasts and the little cup cakes you can buy from the stalls.

Is so lovely to wander around and then there is a park for the sprogs nearby to have a swing.

Lovely!

David

It's good but I struggle to like it as I spent many years around Broadway before the gentrification started. The original grocers and one or two lovely little family restaurants were simply pushed out of business by landlords hiking up the rents and I think only the Albion further south is still a locals pub, the rest being rather blandly gastro'd like Cat & Mutton or like the Dove doubled the price of a pint of lager the moment they spotted a shoreditch twat drifting into view. Still, it's definitely got a lot to offer, I just harbour a little resentment in how they gentrified it with little regard for the local businesses at the time.

Fin

Columbia is also good but as far as I'm aware there isn't a direct bus link to make it feel (almost) "local".

Reg

Fin, Just get off the 236 on Queensbridge Road and walk down (10 mins?) E8 is hardly local by any stretch. Thankfully!

Bridget

I too remember Broadway market in the olden days when there was very little there. All I can say is that is is a million times better!

David

The usual divide. There is obviously a lot more on offer, but identikit gastro's and italian's in place of the Dove of yesteryear and Little Georgia serving up extortionately priced goods isn't necessarily better. I preferred the quieter local vibe before to the painful shoreditch one it has now. But then I'm citing a dislike of the type of gentrification that many members on here would like to see on SGR and I'm clearly in the minority with this view...

Fin

Reg, same bus takes you straight to Broadway market, no walking at all, which is certainly more convenient (ok, not local) as far as I'm concerned.

To be honest Columbia, being just off Brick Lane, is a little touristy for my liking too. Good but not quite in Broadway's league.

I've just been over E8 way again today. Great caff in Victoria Park called the Pavillion, would love to have similar in Finsbury Park.

gargoyle

You're not alone, David. I do enjoy Broadway Market, but the whole street is the brainchild of a particularly mercenary property developer who turfed out all the shops and cafes that had been there for years in 2004/05. He was my friend's landlord, and whenever she had a problem with the flat he would say "you're not making any sense - put your husband on the phone!"

And the Dove was much better before it employed bouncers.

The Little Georgia's moved up the road near the Hackney City Farm, and the owner just had a baby, I think.

David

Didn't realise Little Georgia had set up somewhere else, I'll definitely get over there- [review here](http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogspot.com/2007/03/little-georgia-hackney.html) which led to a [short documentation](http://www.hackneygetsrippedoff.blogspot.com) of what happened to them and others previously at Broadway Market - it's an interesting and quite sad read.