Columbia Road Flower Market

Lovely (if extremely busy and claustrophobic) array of flowers at the weekend for very reasonable prices! Friends of mine got 20 roses for £10 which is just incredible value.

Columbia road flower market gets really hectic before you know it, but it’s well worth braving the crowd to see the endless affordable plants. Now, I live in a flat with no garden space, but thank god for windowsills and succulents, because I would kill any other kind of plant with negligence otherwise, and the flower market has plenty of cacti up for grabs. Just brace yourself for people, bring a bag or something to lug your flowery friends home, and also take time to check out the quirky shops along the street too! Well worth spending a Sunday morning here.

It is a wonderful visual spectacle. It is in a fantastic location. It does have some cool coffee, food, shops to wander around nearby. But… I’m just not that into flowers. As an art director by trade I even have an eye for all things visual, so colourful, but I can’t excited about this flower market. Not as much as most girls. Of course it’s not just for girls, but I presume most guys have been dragged there or see this as a cool last Sunday bring your date one morning to soak up time place to casually stroll around.
I can see the appeal but it’s not for me. Not unless I guarantee to have a hangover bacon butty or a salt beef bagel from brick lane in my other hand from my girl. I mean it’s flowers. But it is a very good and varied selection. The best moment for me is when you see the awesome pub (the birdcage) on the corner that you can retreat to after you’ve survived the flower watching. Maybe things do have a silver lining after all.

A favourite amongst Londoners and with good reasons! It’s basically flower paradise down there, and a cheap one as well.
Most flowers go for £5 a bunch or £10 for 3 and there are also plenty of antics /​food /​cookery stores along the way.
A brilliant way to brighten up a grey-​ish winter morning if you ask me!

One of London ‘s great street markets, only on a Sunday.
A lit of fresh flowers and plants (I bought beautiful anemones and a bunch of orange tulips).
Go early on sunday morning … It gets very busy around 10h30… and finishes around 2pm.
Lots of café, nice gift shops, bakery !!! .
Its a perfect place to spend a sunday, I love this flowers market !!

One of my favorite places in London — when I can force myself to wake up early enough. If there was one place I could recommend to new-​comers to London to visit, this would be it. Admittedly, it’s not the longest market around but it does what it says on the tin. Everywhere you look their are beautiful mountains of flowers waiting to be snapped up for a great price. More into gardening? There are loads of little fruit trees, succulents, flat friendly sized ferns, to name a few on offer. It’s a really bustling little road, so get there early! We usually head down around 10 am, which feels just about right to take in the buzzing vibes before it’s so packed you are squeezing past each other in the street. Behind the stalls the road also is home to a great variety of cute shops selling local art and products, coffee in a little hole in the wall (literally), vintage home ware and a few pretty great pubs too. Not to be missed! Don’t forget to take cash, non of the stalls take card!

A must have experience on a sunny sunday. :) VERY crowded at times, meaning you will be pushed around the place by the masses. Worth getting there early to beat the crowds, but for the flowers you should wait untill around 2PM when the stalls are closing and the already reasonably priced cut flowers go for even cheaper as they won’t keep for the next week. Some pretty amazing bargains can be had, but mind the variety and quality declines as the day goes by.
Also good for perennials (including herbaceous), succulents and indoor plants. The stallholders are friendly, loud and funny, as they should be. A very east end experience, but the shops are a different matter and will make you feel like you’re in Primrose Hill. They’re varied and very interesting, for sure, but mostly overpriced and shopkeepers can be a bit grand and stuck up (not all, of course). They tend to give you dirty looks if there’s a camera around your neck, as for some odd reason taking pictures inside the shops is frowned upon. Most don’t even bother to smile while dealing with customers — unless they’re regulars or friends, and that gives off a cliquey vibe that is not really fitting with the purpose of having a shop on a very touristic area. Remember most shops are only on when the market is, meaning most will only open on sundays — a few on saturday, even fewer during the week. That changes near Christmas when they’ll usually open late for a day during the week.
Parking is difficult. I’d suggest public transport (Liverpool Street e Bethnal Green tube stations aren’t that far) or buses, but that could be a bit of a bummer if you want to buy larger/​heavy plants. In this case you might have to get there super early to try and get a parking space.
There are plenty little bakeries selling bagels and coffee places from windows inbetween the shops (there’s no place to sit down, you grab your grub and carry on walking), bigger bakeries and restaurants (but not a lot of them), a few sit down cafés but beware they’ll be crowded and not always will you find a table. Lots of buskers, singers and street performers give the place a delightful bohemian atmosphere. It’s great to take pictures if you’re into photography, as the flowers are simply gorgeous — just be careful inside shops as the sight of a camera might cause you to have your head bitten off. Lol.
PLEASE don’t bring small children on prams, there is simply NO space for it.

It’s very cute and pretty with so many nice flowers and stands. However, it’s insanely crowded with people jam packed down one single aisle in the middle of the road. I had to leave after one walk through because it was too hot and people are just bumping up against you the whole time.
The vendors are very funny and lively. The flowers are beautiful and worth a visit. I loved exploring the Columbia Road area as it was my first time. I might have to come back again.

A must on a sunny Sunday morning.
The buzz and atmosphere is great, the flowers beautiful — really good stroll! Some flowers seem like a bargain, some a rip off! Tonnes of small drinks vendors tucked in the between shops behind the flower market — coffee and juices. I had the nicest carrot, Apple and ginger juice!
Apparently good places around for cake or breakfast but I didn’t spot any as was so busy.
Can’t wait to return to buy some flowers. My friend bought a beautiful orchid for her mum for £5!

It’s an amazing experience being in the middle of a crowd busy selling and buying flowers. I have never been to a flower road market, so this is a new experience. I also walked in and out of the side stores and found one that I particularly love — Ryantown —
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Great London experience, such a variety of flowers and plants and an old school London market seller vibe makes it an experience unto itself. Nice cafes and shops nearby too and close to London Fields and the canal! Better to go early AM unless you love HUGE crowds.

C’est bien devenu l’un des immanquables de Londres pour une petite promenade du dimanche matin.
Après avoir entendu parler de ce marché aux fleurs par le biais d’amis ou de blogs. Je me suis enfin décidée à y faire une petite virée, lors de ma dernière visite à Londres.
Alors bon, il y a quand beaucoup de monde… Ce qui peut être pour certains un point négatif. Lorsque je m’y suis rendue avec deux amies, nous avons eu un peu de mal à se frayer un chemin dans la foule. Il faut dire aussi que ce n’est pas très grand, ce marché se déroule tout au long d’une rue bordée de différents commerces. Cependant, le cadre y est très agréable et vivifiant, d’autant plus lorsque le soleil est de partie.
J’ai presque eu la sensation de né plus être à Londres… On est clairement a des années lumières de Regent Street et d’Oxford Circus.
Etant simplement de passage à Londres, je n’ai pas eu le plaisir de repartir avec quelques fleurs, même si l’envie d’y céder était très forte. En plus, les prix m’ont semblé plutôt attractifs. Quoi qu’il en soit, si vous avez le temps de vous y rendre, n’hésitez pas. Ensuite, l’idée est surtout de continuer la balade dans les quartiers voisins comme Brick Lane et aller se perdre au Old Spitafield Market !

I’d heard good things and was excited to visit the market, and it’s probably worth a visit. However, it was EXTREMELY crowded, so it was near impossible to browse or enjoy the stalls. Mainly I was just slowly shuffling down the street in a sort of queue, every now and then seeing something that might be of interest but not really being able to stop and hold things up. I did get some flowers and they were very reasonable, and the street looked lovely and full of potentially fun shops, but I’m not sure the experience itself was particularly enjoyable due to the crush. No doubt there are better times to go (I was in the afternoon, so quite possibly rush hour for it).

This is a definitely a place worth going to. The flowers are dead cheap, there is plenty of variety, lots of activities nearby & the tube is only a 5 minute walk from the market (if you don’t get lost) — overall it is a great experience even if you are not buying any flowers.
It can get very crowded especially on a sunny day, but you can always take a break and browse the shops, bakeries, cafes until the crowds quiet down. Perfect for a Sunday break ;)

A really lovely way to spend a Sunday. We arrived at about 1pm and it was incredibly busy so I would go earlier next time. Full of lovely flowers at great prices & a very fun atmosphere

It’s an experience!
I can’t say anything that hasn’t been said, but it’s a fun visit!

Sunday’s at London’s Columbia Road Flower Market is not too be missed. Crammed into a long lane on London’s east side, Cockney scented flower vendors hawk a wide variety of beautiful and exotic flowers and plants shouting things like «come on, these flowers are even cheap enough for that mother in law that you don’t like». Local shops around the area sell antiques, vintage, tchotchkes, ceramic and houseware and other fun items. Street musicians occupy various corners and alleys around the area. Great fun.

If you’re looking for an off-​the-​beaten path market to take friends to when they’re in town consider Columbia Road Flower Market on Sundays. As the reviews say, it’s a packed street in East London where all the flower vendors meet up to sell fresh flowers. There isn’t a tube station nearby (true Londoners take buses) I suggest you take your bike anyway or take a Boris Bike (there are nearby docks).
It’s not just flowers however, you can get seeds and plants as well. I live in the area and go there every so often to buy fresh flowers for the house. A dozen roses for £5 isn’t a bad deal! I’ve gotten several plants from this market including Aloe Vera and Orchids — all cheap.
Also don’t forget to check out the shops behind the vendors long the street. lots of quaint little shops selling knick knacks, vintage items, garden stuff, etc.
Towards the end of the road, on the East side, there is a small little coffee shop which is converted from the ground floor of someone’s house! It’s pretty cool, highly recommend to check that out as well.
My quick tip that hasn’t been mentioned is to have lunch at the nearby Sting Ray café pub — super cheap extra large pizzas… and they taste great!

I finally went to the Columbia Road Flower Market. I had so many people recommend I check it out. It’s a small alleyway, PACKED with every flower imaginable, including succulents. Hundreds of people were squeezed down the middle of the alley, single-​file in each direction. Be prepared to wait a little if you want to walk the whole thing. It’s not a long alley but there are a lot of people, so it’s very crowded and slow moving.
Merchants yell «Sunflowers, best in London, three for a fiver!» or «Luxurious peonies, look at these beauties, two for a tenner!» I was mesmerized by the whole thing. I ended up buying a tiny succulent for friend of mine back home (it was only £2), it’s beautiful with red flowers. I wish I could have bought all of the flowers at this market. It was an incredible place.
There are a lot of cute little shops around the market as well, some serving coffee or ice cream. There are all kinds of brunch specials going on at the restaurants too. This is definitely a must see if you’re visiting London and like flowers!
The reason I gave it ⁴⁄₅ stars is because it’s not very big. When I think of a market, I think of the Rose Bowl flea market that takes an hour or so to check out. But you can see all of the flowers in this market in about 15 minutes. Though each vendor has a wide variety, a lot of the vendors are very similar and are boasting similarly prices deals.
You can get a «bunch» of sunflowers for £5, or a couple peonies for £10, so the prices are pretty reasonable. It’s nice a way to spend a sunday afternoon in my opinion.
SUNDAYS ONLY.

Holy sh!! t. Was it the sunny weather? Was it the hope of Spring? I don’t know… but I do know I will never recommend the market.
And why is that?
Well, let’s do the math.
Yes, it offers cheaper flowers. But my tube fare overshadows this.
And I didn’t even see flowers. I stared at the back of hundreds of people’s heads while walking at a zombie snail pace through the stalls. If I stopped to buy some tulips, I probably would have been trampled. And let the record show that I went at 2, the supposed «less crowded time».
Save your time. Save your tube fare. Go to a local flower stand. Or Homebase.

I’m tempted to dock this floral-​scented, endorphin-​inducing, chaotic cacophony of a street on Sundays due to the crowds, but I will not.
Consider the masses the thorns to the rose. A bit of a bother, but by no means should it detract from the beauty of the experience that is the Columbia Road Flower Market.
Logistically — it’s a disaster. Year ’round. Almost from the time it opens until the last petals are trampled as the vendors make a dash for their Sunday roast at dinnertime. If you don’t like crowds, you will not be happy.
If you can get past that — it’s quite a treat indeed. Besides the flowers being fresh, fragrant, beautiful, plentiful, colorful and inexpensive, it’s an experience. Columbia Road crowded from end to end with vendors beckoning you to buy all types of flowery indulgences.
Tips:
*bring cash (obviously).
*wear closed toe shoes.
*leave dogs/​children at home (seriously — I am not joking about the immensity or proximity of the crowds). You will not have much personal space.
*if you are a tourist — try not to hold up a bunch of people so you can instagram. Actually, this goes for everyone. Enjoy the experience, maybe take some photos of your flowers once you get to the park? Yes, that’s better. Move along.
*If you plan to do quite a haul, bring a nice tote to collect your prizes. Bonus points if it doesn’t maim anyone as you walk.
*Don’t miss the shops along Columbia Road! I missed them the first time as the flower market really takes up all of the space, but there are very cute home, art and clothing shops all along the road. Most are only open weekends. Obviously Saturday will be much easier shopping, but I’ve popped in and out on Sundays and still enjoyed it. I stopped in one shop to pick up long-​stemmed vases, score.
All in all — if you can battle the crowds, this is a delight. Yes, t’would be great if the road were 4x as wide, but this is London and that is part of the charm. Old street, old rich history, gorgeous flowers and men screaming «3 for a tenner» at you as you babystep your way by…

Auch wenn der Weg dorthin etwas weit ab vom Schuss ist, ist auch dies ein Muss für Blumenfans. Bei schönem Wetter läuft man durch die kleinen Gassen und überall tummeln sich Menschen. Orchideen sind hier ein richtiges Schnäppchen.