East End

Petticoat Lane is the best known East End market. Every Sunday it offers cut-price fashions, china and toys. Bargaining is a must for leather goods! At Roman Road Market in Bow, buy new and secondhand clothes, fabrics and shoes, then sample a plate of jellied eels or pie and mash in one of the old-style 'pie and mash' shops here. 

There's plenty of bric à brac to rummage through in Brick Lane and you'll certainly find the unexpected here! For a different style try Spitalfields, which has become very a trendy place for up and coming designers, artists and craftspeople to sell their wares and it's also a venue for two of London's newest festivals - the 'East meets West' carnival in September and the Spitalfields Winter Festival of Music in December.  

Further east along the London Underground District Line is Green Street, East Ham. Green Street - sometimes dubbed 'the Bond Street of the East End' - is a refreshing and exciting high street with over 400 independent shops representing cultures from around the world. Here you can search for jewellery and designer saris or enjoy authentic international cuisine. And all this around the corner from the historic Upton Park home of West Ham FC.  

When you're done with markets, visit the Whitechapel Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, or become absorbed in the tranquil haven of the Geffrye Museum or maybe take in the East Ham Nature Reserve on Norman Road - an oasis of nature trails set in the grounds of an 800 year old Norman church.