Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2018 | Page 87

Travel | London
London visitors would do well to organise some
sightseeing around the capital’s markets – they tend
to be within sniffing distance of good food, historic
sights and plentiful transport.
Walthamstow’s (the longest street market
in Europe) as ‘Wally Market’. They are
celebrated, and they are lampooned. Covent
Garden (originally a great fruit, vegetable and
flower market) was mockingly referred to as
‘Mud-Salad Market’ by satirical magazine
Punch back in the day.
5 Senses – Sight
WEEKDAY MARKETS
Markets aren’t just for weekends.
If it’s Monday, try Covent Garden
– ever buzzing, a hunt through the
craft stalls in the Apple Market might
be fruitful. Head to Piccadilly Market
– which stands in St James’s Church
courtyard, near Piccadilly Circus – on
Tuesday when it sells antiques (on
Monday food, and the rest of the week
arts and crafts). Feeling literary on
Wednesday? Browse the stall s of the
Book Market (daily from lunchtime
until around 7pm under Waterloo
Bridge on Queen’s Walk, the riverside
promenade that runs by the
South Bank Arts Centre).
Pasar tidak hanya ramai pada akhir
pekan. Pada hari Senin, singgahlah di
Covent Garden dan jelajahi kios-kios
kerajinan di Apple Market. Kunjungi
juga Piccadilly Market yang berlokasi
di halaman Gereja St James di dekat
Piccadilly Circus pada hari Selasa,
untuk mencari barang antik (hari
Senin makanan dan hari lainnya
barang-barang kesenian dan
kerajinan). Untuk hari Rabu, peminat
karya sastra bisa menjelajahi kios-kios
Pasar Buku (buka setiap hari dari jam
makan siang sampai jam 7 malam di
bawah Waterloo Bridge Queen’s
Walk, kawasan pejalan kaki di tepi
sungai yang dikelola oleh South
Bank Arts Centre).
You just have to look at street and area names
to understand the centuries-old importance
of market culture to the capital. Well-to-do
Mayfair was named after a market-and-festival
that came in the springtime; there are Cloth
Fair, Haymarket, Shepherd Market, New
Change (short for ‘exchange’), Leathermarket,
and the list goes on. Tell people you’re going to
‘Portobello’ or ‘Lower Marsh’ or ‘Petticoat Lane’
and they might give you a shopping list. Across
this great city there are countless Market Places,
Yards, Lanes, Streets, Squares and Parades. Some
place names are initially obscure, like Cheapside
and Eastcheap (thoroughfares in the financial
district), but their names come from the Old
English word chepe or ‘market’.
Not far from Eastcheap, Leadenhall is
a handsome example of a 130-year-old arcade
market. It was built by the Victorians who were
continuing a concept – the equivalent of today’s
indoor shopping mall – that was seen in the
16 th -century Royal Exchange and probably
before that.
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Leadenhall’s shopfronts retain many original
features, including century-old racks of hooks
from which pheasant or oxtail or spring lamb
would hang when this was home to poultry,
meat and dairy traders. Today the shops have
turned to restaurants and retail, but visitors can
still marvel at the stunning canopy that was
erected in 1881 at about the same time as
another popular market – Spitalfields –
also acquired a new edifice.
Spitalfields (close to Liverpool Street station)
was then a bustling fruit and vegetable market,
but it has since been reinvented and now draws
hoards of hungry browsers to its art, fashion and
collectibles stalls that pitch alongside street-food
trucks and restaurants. Close to Brick Lane
(with its ‘Curry Mile’ of South Asian restaurants
and grungy, edgy or hipster weekend markets), it
originally supplied fruit and vegetables to
London’s East End in the same way Covent
Garden did to its West End. Smithfield Meat
Market, located midway between them both, is
still going strong in its vast 1868 Victorian
complex (designed coincidentally by the same
architect as Leadenhall Market). They say that
the ground beneath it is in a state of permafrost
– and has been since the first ice blocks were
deposited in its cold stores.
London visitors would do well to organise some
sightseeing around the capital’s markets – they
tend to be within sniffing distance of good food,
historic sights and plentiful transport. Here are
four suggestions for a busy weekend:
Thursday: Greenwich Market
Greenwich is easily reached by bus or train,
but by far the most fitting way to get there
is by the Thames Clipper boat service
that runs from various piers including Bankside
and London Bridge City near Borough Market.
Britain was a seagoing powerhouse in the 18 th
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