A wonderful explosion of colour and life, this weekly market sells a beautiful array of flowers, pot plants, bulbs, seeds and everything you might need for the garden. It's a lot of fun and the best place to hear proper Cockney barrow-boy banter ('We got flowers cheap enough for ya muvver-in-law's grave' etc). It gets really packed, so go as early as you can, or later on when the vendors sell off cut flowers cheaply.
Louise Murray/Robert Harding
Columbia Road Flower Market
Top choice in East London
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
23.23 MILES
The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…
3.14 MILES
A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place…
1.88 MILES
One of London's most amazing attractions, Tate Modern is an outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery housed in the creatively revamped Bankside…
5.07 MILES
With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy…
1.55 MILES
Sir Christopher Wren’s 300-year-old architectural masterpiece is a London icon. Towering over diminutive Ludgate Hill in a superb position that's been a…
1.43 MILES
Few parts of the UK are as steeped in history or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of the Tower of London. Not only is…
1.8 MILES
Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…
2.49 MILES
With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…
Nearby East London attractions
0.28 MILES
If there's a less bucolic landscape than Hackney Rd, we can't imagine it. All the more reason to bring a slice of the country to kids who have only ever…
0.33 MILES
These beautiful ivy-clad brick almshouses, which are closed until summer 2020 for renovations, were built in 1714 as a home for poor pensioners. Two rooms…
0.37 MILES
A little pocket of charming – not to mention unlikely – wilderness in the middle of a Hackney housing estate, St Mary’s Secret Garden really does feel…
0.53 MILES
Founded here in the 17th century, Truman's Black Eagle Brewery was, by the 1850s, the largest brewery in the world. Spread over a series of brick…
0.6 MILES
This grand 1719 town house was originally occupied by a prosperous Huguenot family of weavers, before becoming home to waves of immigrants, including…
0.6 MILES
This extraordinary Georgian house is set up as if its occupants – a family of Huguenot silk weavers – have just walked out the door. Each of the 10 rooms…
0.65 MILES
This imposing English baroque structure, with a tall spire sitting on a portico of four great Tuscan columns, was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and…
0.69 MILES
Housed in a purpose-built Victorian-era building, this branch of the Victoria & Albert Museum is aimed at both kids (with play areas, interactive exhibits…