A Day Out at Spitalfields, Camden and Brick Lane

Last Thursday, 7th June, I went on a trip to London for some casual shopping and browsing with my friends MP and EW for MP’s birthday. I think I’ll just write a quick summary about how it was since it was a bloody great day.

Camden  
Even though I have been there quite a few times now, I still get quite confused about how to get round, hence we ended up going round a few circles. In the end we managed to find this vintage shop I really wanted to go to. I just want to ask you guys, do you feel bad when you try on clothes, but none fit so you have to hand out back all the clothes to the sales assistant? This time I felt super bad, especially since the guy working there was so nice. I’ve decided that that shop is probably my favourite in Camden as they always play good music, have good yet not extortionate clothes and, they employ good looking people there, which is always a bonus.We went to Rokit and looked around, but I have only just realised how over priced their vintage clothing is.

Anyway, I bought a slice of greasy pizza for £2 and almost burnt my hand on it as I managed to almost drop it on the floor and we ate our lunch next to some of the world’s ugliest pigeons. I am not exaggerating when I say they were the most grotesque and foul looking monsters I have ever seen and it was even scarier since they would pretty confidently swoop right above your heads.

Old Spitalfields Market
I’ve never been to this part of London before, but the area around Liverpool Street Station is very smart and impressive with all its high-rise buildings, minimalist statues and city workers in suits. I think we felt a bit under dressed when we walked out the station.

By this point it was absolutely tipping it down with rain. However, turns out that Spitalfields is actually indoors. I was imagining a dirty, crowed market similar to Camden, but instead it was very clean and new, with lots of fancy restaurants around the perimeter of the market. The stalls were filled with a lot of overpriced junk, but also a lot of gems and quirky knick-knacks. I managed to find some awesome jewellery for only £1 each.

What I loved most about this market though was the atmosphere. Normally I usually feel overdressed in most situations but here, so many people were so well dressed and artsy. It has really inspired to be more outgoing and expressive with my sense of style. This is what I really love about London street style and hence why I have swayed ScatterrBrained in a more fashion based direction as I am seriously inspired by all these people to become more stylish.

Brick Lane
Perhaps we should’ve done a bit more research before heading here, but we spent so long walking down Brick Lane, only to find endless curry houses instead of the market stalls we sought after. This was not fun in the pouring rain. (Turns out the Brick Lane market is only on Sundays. Fail.

However, it wasn’t a complete waste of a day as we managed to find this shop called “This Shop Rocks”. What originally lured off into the shop was the fact they advertised a £3 basement sale. In fact, most the stuff in the basement was junk, but my friend managed to find a cool corset. Yes, a corset(!)There was one annoying this about this sale though – the basement had a disgusting smell that could only be described as the smell of mouldy grandmas. However, on the way out I did manage to find a really amazing shirt which I will  have featured in an outfit post.

Free Stuff

1. The Starbucks in Camden were handing out free hazelnut and something coffees which just tasted like normal coffee to me. WIN.
2. When we were walking out of Liverpool Street Station, a sales team for handing out free Ambrosia, which is rice pudding. Mine was chocolate flavoured and I really wanted to eat it, except from the fact that they did not give us spoons! FAIL.
3. In Spitalfields market, a shop was handing out falafel balls which were pretty yummy. WIN.
4. Also in Spitalfields market, there was a random Samsung stand where they were promoting the Samsung Galaxy S II. To coincide with lots of phones to play around with, you could get your picture taken by one of these phones in front of a Union Jack with a crown on your head. Then a person would quickly print these photographs off and make them into a badge, which I think I got a bit too excited about. WIN.

Oh yeah, freebies.

I didn’t spend too much money today, but I had a great day. I haven’t really visited many cities and may I also have a bias towards it, but this has reiterated the fact that London is one of my favourite cities in the world. All in all, my advice is to everyone is that if you wish to avoid Frankenstein-esque pigeons, rain, fried food lathed in MSG and herds of wannabe teenagers, stop going to Camden and go to Spitalfields Market!

Tally ho!


Rebecca x
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