Brick Lane Market

Brick Lane is usually just a long street with a lot of Bengali restaurants, but on Sundays it changes completely. It's invaded by what seems like half of London filling the streets and giving the food court sections a lot of money. Some celebrities have been caught shopping at Brick Lane market, if you like that kind of thing. But most of all I love the diversity of this one street.

Everyone seems to interact so well. You have to start from the food court. You can get an incredibly diverse meal for about 5 pounds. If you want a drink you may need to spend a little more, and the sushi is slightly more expensive. But you can get amazing Italian calzoni, or Turkish halloumi wraps, and now they even have a stand with blue lemonade and skinny round slices of potatoes on a stick. Everything is a little quirky. 

Under the food court there is a section where there are vintage clothes, and the first time I ever went there I found Christian Louboutin shoes for 200 pounds (so cheap!) but you can find a few other cool things. My favourite stand is a jewelry one that does two items for 10 pounds. Allowing me to have increased my earring collection a lot. There is also another warehouse type building with stands of individual artists who sell their t-shirt designs as well as their jewelry and cards. I really like a girl that does drawings of birds in hats, this is her site: http://birdsinhats.blogspot.com/. The market is only every Sunday, from about 10am, to 5pm, but its really worth going. You can even buy old records, and old cameras for affordable prices. 

Here's the website for the market: http://www.visitbricklane.org/

Rokit

Rokit on Brick Lane takes up 3 shop windows. I've walked past it a lot because I went in there with my parents once and I didn't like it. With my flatmate Emily, I decided to try it out again. The first and last door lead to small vintage shops and the middle door has really modern clothes from small English clothing labels.

The vintage sections are really cheap, with the clothes divided really well by cut, length and type. All the cropped t-shirts are together, that way you don't have to spend ages in the shop looking for them. The women's wear spreads into the men's wear section a bit. There's at least one of everything in every colour you just have to be lucky enough for the colour you like to be your size but I guess that's always the case with vintage clothes.

The middle store is beautiful, its divided into mini boutiques where each small label has its specific section. All the clothes are hung in size and colour order. So you don't even have to sort through to find the thing you want. Everything has an interesting design or print. There was this one sweater I really wanted. But I think I'm going to try to survive without it because after all it does cost 40 pounds, and I don't really need it.

I thought it was really cool that the shop is divided because it helped me shop better in each individual one and I could focus more on what I needed to buy instead of what I thought I might wear. You can shop online at http://www.rokit.co.uk 

Blackbird Tea Rooms

At the Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair there was also a Tea Room set up. The people running it were the people from Blackbird Tea Rooms from Brighton. They came all the way to London for the event. The waitresses were dressed in little polished outfits, and you had to wait in line to be seated. Each table had a perfect frilly table cloth and the bar was lined with different cakes. 

I studied the menu and finally decided to have my first English muffin. It was with ham, cheddar and tomato chutney. It came with a salad and I tried to eat most of the salad before touching the English muffin because I knew that if I ate the muffin first there was no way I was going to eat the salad. 

I drank a ginger beer which I really liked because it had that little kick that sometimes you need. The room the tea room was set up in had a long brown wooden bar, and a sofa for the people waiting. This was a side room of the Chelsea Town Hall. It was nice to be seated near the fireplace of the room because even if the fireplace wasn't on you could look at all the intricate detailing in sides of the fireplace. 

It took us quite a while to be served but we're glad we waited because everything was delicious. Here's their website: http://www.blackbirdtearooms.com/

Frock Me!

On the 19th of May I went to the Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair in Chelsea Town Hall. When I was a kid I remembered going to this town hall to see many different things. I think there was one time I remember really well because I was surrounded by like pink and beige clothes, it was a Burberry sample sale. This time I recognized traits of the building but not much else. 

We paid our 2 pound entrance fee, and walked inside, astonished by the number of stands selling clothes from different eras. I'm very picky with vintage clothes, they need to actually be old and represent something from the past to me, instead of being something from a few years ago with a label I recognize. Both my friend and I were able to find something we liked that wasn't incredibly expensive. However there was this one princess chiffon dress which I would have loved to own but it was a little out of my price range (280 pounds). 

Everyone selling things was really friendly allowing us to try things on, and when we didn't have enough cash, to go to the machine across the street to get money for the item we wanted. We got to hold a phone-bag which was used in the film "An Education", and see clothes that could have been featured in the Marie Antoinette film. Overall, it was like a little fairy tale. The next Frock Me! event is on the 8th of September, but there is also one on the 20th of October too. 

Here's their website: http://www.frockmevintagefashion.com

Spitalfields Market

Spitalfields Market has something going on every single day. The actual infrastructure is called "Old Spitalfields Market" and on each side of the square there are a few permanent shops, as well as some restaurants. But during the day, until around 5pm, there are street markets. On Thursday the market specifically has vintage stands which sell everything from clothes to home decor, and old cameras. Every stand has some little story linked with each individual item on sale. 

If you have time you should browse slowly and talk to each of the sellers and get to know the products you're interested in. I generally try to avoid that because I spend ridiculous amounts of money when I start to like someone, I tend to feel like I have to buy their stuff. I go there for the atmosphere because everyone is somewhat creative and interesting and at some point everyone is willing to tell their story. 

I tend to buy small postcards for my room because I like to imagine what was going on when the photo was taken and where this place could be. Spitalfields Market, like other markets in London, for me is an escape a way to submerge myself into a different life just for a moment. 

Here's the market's website: http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/

Paper Dress

Paper Dress is a vintage shop in Shoreditch which happens to be a cafe/bar as well. Its really cute from the sign on the outside attracting in customers to the blackboards inside near the bar showing all the available drinks. There are a few small coffee tables inside, and a bigger one with a large couch. There is also cute detailing near the changing rooms where there are old beauty mirrors for the customers to look at the clothes on themselves.

All the clothes sold in Paper Dress are vintage, and the racks are divided by colour and time period, everything is well labelled, showing the decade it is from and any other particular remark. Vintage in London however is never cheap, but there were a bunch of vintage sunglasses for about 10 pounds each, which isn't too bad for some nice sunglasses. 

Generally, the greatest thing about this place is the ambiance, its like you walked into an old movie, because the employees of the shop are all dressed in their favourite eras of the past. Unlike most other stores, there is also a menswear section, which means if you bring boys they wont die of boredom like the normal shopping trip, cause if they don't like the clothes they can sit down and grab a beer. 

Here's their website (they also do cute vintage events once in a while): http://paperdressvintage.co.uk/

Birthdays

Every first Saturday of the month the Dalston bar "Birthdays" hosts a "vintage sale". Its not really a vintage sale, its where individuals choose to sell their old clothes at a really really cheap price. I found a Zara top I wanted from 2 years ago there for 5 pounds. They have some designers stuff, some high street clothes, and some quirky individual make clothes. 

You walk into the bar and you can order coffee or food, and browse through the racks of clothing and accessories. Some people were selling clothes that were really summery and weather appropriate whereas others were selling clothes for all types of different weather. On the ground floor there are loads of different sellers lined up around the "edge" of the room. You then go down a set of stairs where the bar's dance floor usually is and there were more racks of clothes. The colours of the clothes were harder to see downstairs because the lights aren't very bright but there were more unique clothes in the downstairs section. 

Sadly, I didn't find anything, but hopefully I'll be going back on the 1st of June to see if they have anything better. I also want to go there at night cause my friend Daniella said that there was a really good vibe there the last time she went. Also, I really like the venue's logo, its so cute, I love that font! 

I heard of this event through Facebook, but you can also find it on the Birthdays website: http://birthdaysdalston.com/

The Breakfast Club

Throughout London there are a few restaurants named "The Breakfast Club". They all have yellow doors, old school interiors and amazing food. My friend just told me that on the internet there are bad reviews for the Breakfast Club, which makes me really sad, because its an amazing place. Their burgers and breakfast food is incredible and so are their homemade juice combos.

I frequently go to one near Spitalfields market, because that's the closest one to home, but I've also been to the one in Soho and the one in Hoxton. In the Spitalfields one there is a fridge door that leads you to the bar, if you just want to go for drinks but there's also a big seating area before getting to the fridge door. The menus are really varied for a burger and breakfast place but if you go after 5 pm the bigger breakfast menu is not going to be served any more.

They have a couple of really cool light up signs throughout the venue, as well as a traffic light showing when food is ready to be served to the tables. Sadly, I've never tried the dessert menu because I always happen to stuff my face before I get there, but the desserts I'm seen all look really good. I'm just a sucker for french fries. I love love love fries.

Here's their website if you want to take a look: http://www.thebreakfastclubcafes.com/

Love Shake

On Shoreditch high street there is an amazing milkshake place called "Love Shake". You can get shakes with oreo, peanut butter, short cake, traditional flavours (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla), and alcoholic ones. They also serve food, but i don't recommend getting food cause the milkshakes are so filling.

The interior of Love Shake is very retro, there are pictures of Elvis and Wonderwoman from the old comic books. There are booths set up on the sides and their tables are set up like old diner table. They have cute lamps with cheesy lampshades and mirrors on the walls. My favourite thing is that the bathroom doors are covered with men and women from the 50's.

I go to Love Shake way too often, I go at least once a week, I can't get enough of their shakes. Here's their webpage: http://www.theloveshake.co.uk/

Shoreditch Vintage Fair

On Saturday 27th of April in the Shoreditch Town Hall there was a vintage fair. It was really well set up, each seller had a little stand where their clothes were set up, and most of them had a rack with clothes of cheaper prices, such as a 10 pounds or 5 pounds rack. If you liked something you were able to take it downstairs to the huge bathrooms and try it on. I only bought one top, but its really cute, its jeans and polka dotted with white spots. There were mostly stands with women's wear, but there were  a few with men's wear as well as a few accessory stalls.

The hall in which the event took place was beautiful, it was an old concert hall, where the people of Shoreditch would go to see theatre productions and such. 

One thing I really enjoyed was how friendly everyone was, they were all willing to help you out, and several of the vendors gave me their cards. I'm looking forward to going by their stores sometime soon. 

The entrance charge for the fair is 2 pounds, and I didn't really mind paying those 2 pounds because they use that money to set up the next vintage fair. I think the event occurs every month on the last Saturday of the month. Here's their webpage: http://www.thevintagefair.com/

Vintage Tea-House

Its very common in English culture to be surrounded by tea. Originally I think people drank it to keep warm but now everyone is accustomed to it. Generally you drink tea with milk and sugar here, and I had never done that before arriving in the UK. Tea for me is to drink when you're sick, its supposed to warm you up to make you feel better. Here the tea culture is very different, and a great cup of tea some how always comes with a good dessert. 

At the Shoreditch Vintage Fair there was a tea room set up on the lower floor. The two rooms set up with ordinary cafeteria tables were covered in floral table cloths and decorated with vases of flowers as well as the occasional sugar bowl and milk jug. Everything was super cute, and all the cakes looked incredible. 

I chose to have a slice of the Banoffee Cake as well as my own cup of tea. Every tea cup had a different floral pattern and the cutlery given was traditional metal spoons with delicate engravings. It reminded me of being a little girl again. One of the other great things of this pop-up fair was that there were so many different types of people, families, bloggers, and several people just out on a walk wanting to come in for a cup of tea or a cute little cup cake. 

I'm really looking forward to the next time they have a Vintage Fair in the Shoreditch Town Hall just so I'll have the chance to try another slice of cake, or maybe a cupcake! If you fancy some tea, or cake go to: mabelsvintagetea.co.uk