Part 2
Liverpool tube stop is a grand train and tube station that opens up into a huge room with lots of giant windows, and different levels for transportation. I didn’t stick around to investigate, however, because I was on a mission. I was on my way to Brick Lane with a stop Old Spittlefeild Market, which as I discovered is about a ten minuet walk away. When I arrived at the indoor market, my hopes and expectations were higher then what greeted me. Most of the booths were junky, main stream oddities, which really was not what I was looking for. I walked through it quickly anyway, hoping I might be only seeing a part of it, but alas, it was a dead end.
No matter, my goal in coming to this area was to go to Brick Lane anyway, which I have been told by the ladies at work, have a lot of vintage/artsy shops. This did not disappoint. Brick Lane ended up being, the best place I have visited in London thus far. When there, I was told to divert to the side streets if something caught my eye, which was some of the best advise, because the side streets held some of the the best graffiti and street art I have seen yet in London! The street itself looks like it belongs to an artist community, there are stores on it that are clearly one of a kind, tons of little side street indoor markets, vintage shops, and the occasional high end fashion store that looks almost like a museum on the inside.
My favorite game to play when I am in a vintage store is; spot the knock off hand bag. Its kind of like duck duck goose because when I play it, it goes something like this: fake, fake fake, faaaaake...REAL! But you don’t need designer brands if your shopping vintage, there are some great, unique pieces that designs use for inspiration on their current collections. You can buy for fraction of the price and, if its made well, chances are no one will have guessed where you got it!
One of the very best indoor markets I have been to, I discovered on Brick Street. Its called “The Backyard Mark[E1]T.” This market is composed almost entirely of artists selling their work. Some of them have done custom prints on t-shirts and clothing, some of them make their own jewelry, others do photography and print it on magnets or canvases, and they all come here to sell them. Due to the nature of the individual artists career, and the respect I have for their need not to get ripped off by large companies, I do not have any photos of the inside of this market. I DO have the facebook link to a man I met there who makes CRAZY jewelry out of children's toys: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bitsch-Kitsch/145595332197198
There were a few more indoor markets that I visited, and dozens of stores. I continuously saw more graffiti, more street art, more character to this street as I walked. But my feet, my feet were finally growing very unhappy when I realized I had been going strong exploring new things, people and areas, with only a 10 minuet break to sit down for the entire day. This was the sign the my body had had enough, so i headed home. The plus to being up and walking for 8 hours strait is that: whatever you want for dinner, your body will forgive! I stopped at a food store on the ay home called M & S and got some food to make for dinner. The rest of the night I ate, slept, and wrote about my day. The rest was welcome and needed for whatever tomorrow brings!
As always, some more photos for your enjoyment!
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Photo left- a CRAZY vintage store
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| more street art |
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| This photo is inside a tiny store, what your looking at in between the two bins for records, a REAL cat sleeps. This woman had cats hanging out all over the store it was really funny! |
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