Where do you go for your purchase in London if you are food fashionista?

Travel File No. 5: Borough Market

Where do you go for your purchase in London if you are food fashionista? For fashionable gourmet local and international produce - the chefs, the restaurateurs and the gourmands endorse the Borough Market.

In the heart of London, a stone's throw from London Bridge station is one of Britain's  most famous and renowned food market. It is a sprawling affair offering exciting local and exotic gourmet produce, a foodie's haven, the say, a place for anyone who cares about the quality of the food they eat. Filled with amateur cooks and professional, or those who simply just happen to love eating throng its halls filled with aromas, taste and colours. The market itself is steeped in History. Existing on the borough high street since the 13th century, it was closed down in 1755 by the parliament. But a group of local residents raised money to buy a patch of land and reopened the market. The present buildings were designed in 1851. But it was in the 1990's that the market is said to have begun its retail transformation.

Stallholders come to trade at the market from different parts of the UK.Traditional European products are also imported and sold here. Produce sold here includes fresh fruit and vegetables, fine cheeses, oils, spices and seasonings, fresh and cured meats, sea food, freshly baked bread, confectionary,  and pastries. There is also a wide variety of cooked food on sale.With 160 market businesses - farmers, bakers,  selling their produce, it is said to be Britain's answer to famous European markets like the Bocqueria in Barcelona or the Marche Bastille in Paris.

Borough Market has become a fashionable place to buy food, glamourised by the British media, chefs and movies that shopped and shot here. All this media attention has created popularity but many believe  that it is now ripping Borough Market off its uniqueness. As picture taking tourists admiring and sampling the artfully laid out of food visit in abundance, pushing the prices, quality and the market itself over to the commercial edge. However, the bourgh market trust says that it is adamant to ensure that the market does not end up like more commercialised and touristic markets in London.

Although better known as a retail market by the day operating on Thursdays to Saturdays which is probably when you will visit it, Bourough Market operates wholesale trade every night except Saturday.

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Address:8 Southwark Street London SE1 1TL 020 7407 1002
Key Links: http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/page/about-us
Closest tranportation link: London Bridge
Key tip: Check the timings before you go!