Shopping is Boring

Or it is when you are little.

I don't know about you, but these days I find Borough Market increasingly commercialised. There are still the small producers, but increasingly it has a big business feel. So it was with great pleasure that I have found a well-kept secret - the Marylebone Farmers Market. Not well advertised in the street (regulations stop that), it operates in a car park Sundays from 10 to 2. As you can see, it is much more the feel of a genuine farmers market. Another stall picture here, Goats Cheese picture here.

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Am I being a bore?

Just next door to the Bookart Bookshop (yesterday) is the most fantastic hat shop. Or do I mean, a shop selling the most fantastic hats? Whichever, Weave Toshi is a Japanese hat maker with 18 shops in Japan - and this one in London. I enjoyed the "Daydream" on their website, too.

In there, I met a plenitude of hats in all shapes and sizes, the manager, Hikaru Sagura, and his wife. Her portrait is here, and the portrait on this site is NOT he.

Yet another reason to venture into Pitfield Street.

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For the dog that has everything

London is host to some fascinating shops, this one Pets and the City amused me. It's a pampered pets pad, the sort of place you can find diamanté collars in all shades to match your outfits. But this is a Le Corbusier chair. For Dogs. Really. Go on, click through their website and tell me it didn't make you smile.

Dance Yourself Dizzy

For this week, The Way We See It took me to Cecil Court, a short passage stuffed full of interesting shops. Antiquarian and specialist bookshops, curios and antiques, art galleries - they are all here. And at the St Martin's Lane end - Freed and more ballet shoes than you can pirouette at.

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Broadway Market

I've got two discoveries to share with you today, the first is Broadway Market, quite possibly one of the best kept of London's secrets. For a p[lace to shop it ranks alongside Borough Market - Borough has more food, this has more other stuff. And, although it leans heavily to the trendy, it still has some older character places rubbing alongside the new. One piece of advice - go for lunch. Even if you don't fancy the wild mushroom sandwiches being cooked up here, there is bound to be something to your taste. Hog roast, gourmet burgers, indian veggie, west indian, fellafel ...much much more. It would be such a shame not to visit hungry (Saturdays, make a date in your diary). Here's a picture of a selection of Balsamic Vinegars and Olive oils available from one stall.

The second is a Wee Birdy, who is a serious London Shopper. This link will take you to her reviews of Broadway Market stalls and shops... the next best thing to going. If you live half way around the world, go on, give her a read - you'll find out what you are missing.

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