camden markets

my friend from back home, harriet, has been down in london with me for the past few days, and naturally one of the first places on our itinerary was.....

camden! camden! camden! crazy, huge, incredibly fun open-air & indoor markets in london. it's been here since the early 1970's and the stalls stretch right across camden lock village, camden lock market and camden stables market...so it's quite easy to get lost. hattie and i started weaving our way through camden stables market, unable to resist stopping every few seconds to have a poke around the different stalls.

it's true what they say - you can quite honestly find anything your heart desires here in camden.

as many of my friends will tell you, i have a weak spot for jewellery - rings, bracelets, necklaces, the whole lot. i spotted a silver ring with a deep indigo stone embedded in it, and it took all my willpower to put it back down. 

aside from jewellery, there are also a heap of stalls & shops selling vintage and retro clothing, antiques, fabrics, music, organic food,  art, and novel household things...as well as everything else under the sun. we came across melted beer bottles transformed into clocks, or else reshaped into glasses...dreamcatchers of all shapes, patterns & sizes...artists in the process of making ink prints...old lp's turned into clocks... the list goes on.

after several hours of wandering (and, yes... spending), hat and i made a bee-line for a cute pizzeria. we ultimately decided on a delicious parmesan, rocket & cherry tomato pizza. it was so good that we had no choice but to get another... 

moving back through camden lock village, we passed a dozen different food stalls selling delicious, exotic food. lining the regent's canal are a bunch motorcycle seats overlooking the water. hat and i chose instead to sit on the water's edge (might've accidently put my foot right under the water....what of it) and watch the canal boats moving slowly through the locks. definitely the best way to pass a warm, late afternoon - with a picturesque backdrop to watch the sunset. today was one of those rare days that i remembered to bring my lomography fisheye cam with me, so i was able to lock away some memories onto film...which i probably won't reveal until later this year, in paris.

there's no doubt about it, i will definitely be back here before i leave london. camden has this really edgy, exciting & lively feel to it that you can't miss while walking through the winding lanes of market stalls.

in any case, after a whole day at the markets - we still didn't get around to seeing everything! good excuse to come back...

S.

"dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions"

a sign at chesham tube station. combined? really?