An addition to the Farmers' Markets now setting up all over the country, including London, there are the more traditional markets, some of them long-established.
The famous Greenwich Market which was established by Royal Charter in 1849 and remains London's best source for hand crafted items and trinkets. Greenwich can easily be reached by using the Docklands Light Railway.
Think London markets and the mind turns to Sunday mornings in PETTICOAT LANE. Elizabethan enterprise set up a street market in the Aldgate area of London that was concerned largely with the trading of pigs, hence called Hog Lane.
As the years went by great arrays of second-hand petticoats were on sale and the name gradually changed, interrupted only by an unseemly display of Victorian morality when it became Middlesex Street, which happily did not last.
Every Sunday at 9 am over one thousand stalls in Wentworth Street, Middlesex Street and surrounding areas present a great array of clothing and household goods. The market has a wonderful Cockney flavour, prices are seldom shown and hard bargaining rules.
One of Petticoat Lane's more successful alumni is Alan, now Sir Alan, Sugar, of Amstrad Computers fame. His reported earnings in 1999 were in the region of £9.4m, but not from the Lane.
Turning to the Inner Man we are reminded of the BERWICK STREET MARKET. Founded in 1830 this lively concourse is open from 9 am to 6 pm Mondays through to Saturday.
Its staple offering is fruit and vegetables, well supported by delicatessens and pop records shops. A prowl round here can be combined with a visit to one of the many admirable restaurants that are enticingly thick on the ground.
Over at Chalk Farm Road is the celebrated CAMDEN LOCK MARKET. Open Mondays to Sundays from 10 am to 6 pm this very large market is renowned for antiques, bric-a-bac and period clothes. The range of specialist shops and stalls is improving and there is an Organic Market every weekend with an ever-widening spread of interesting and healthy foods on offer.
The area is an attractive one, with the Grand Union Canal running through it and a good range of more permanent shops and stores.
Whilst in the area try and take in the CAMDEN PASSAGE with its good antique shops open from Tuesday through to Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. The stalls are open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9 am to 5 pm. To qualify for the really good buys arrive as early as you can.