Dah'n the Roman
The Roman Road market is in the heart of the East End,and used to be THE place to buy cheap fashion. These days, it's about as good as its website - nothing much there. You'll find few stalls as long standing as this one, when a while ago it used to be normal for father to hand over to son. The other thing that surprised me on Saturday, was that there were no market cries. Times change.
Poking around for this post, I did find Barry Oneofff's site blog and East End Forum. He seems to be the real thing, an old time East Ender.
posted by Ham at 00:02 --
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Comments on "Dah'n the Roman"
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ems said ... (20:53) :
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Anonymous said ... (18:06) :
post a commentIt's the same the country over. Half of my local markets' land was sold for housing. we do get the occasional farmer's markets & ones from France & Germany.
I remember this market so well! There used to be a bloke who sold china dinner services. He stood with a whole service in his arms and had developed a way to throw the whole lot a few inches into the air, catch them, still all together and yell 'Unbreakable china!' They were all yelling, trying to drum up custom. Some didn't like you touching the clothes before you bought them, let alone try them on. They've been driven out of business by the likes of Tesco now. Incidentally my father tells me that Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco, came from Hackney. I think he started out with a market stall.
:P
this kind of places are girls favorite mostly.
by the way,our Prime Minister is in london recently~~
:)
Oooh £1 a bag of sweets!! Used to be 50p but he put it up a few years back. The pear drops are the best!!!
By the way Ham...Dah'n the Roman?
Love it...spot on
Charis, great story, thanks. Yes, Tesco did start in the market, as did Marks & Spencer. (although I think they were probably up the road in Petticoat Lane) Wikipedia has the Tesco background.
Jing - can you keep him, please????
Jenny I should explain. They are not a couple. Instead, he is the brother of the stall owner who is out of shot to the left, and just grabbed his brother's wife for the picture. He is dressed like that, proabably because he dresses like that.
Kitten Heels - Pear drops! I can tate them now....and the lemon sherberts
My dad's family still swear by The Roman. If you can't buy it there or Petticoat Lane it ain't worth having.
After living in England in 1973 for a year, and 6 months in 1980, ( I was 7 and 14 ) my fondest memories are of the great lollies / sweets you have over there. Yum yum! I remember buying a bag of lollies which looked like they were pebbles off the foreshore in Rottingdean ( the shop was jsu there too ), but they were delicious!( I still have a sweet tooth in case you can't tell!)
this place is definitely more fun than those fancy candy stores in shopping malls. I really like it!
that is a fantastic shot, i love it!
Should get up to Walthamstow market..."pand ah bowl "