The East End of London

Photos: exterior, knot garden at the Geffrye Museum. Geffrye's display of 1930s, 1940s and 1960s house interiors. Columbia Street on Saturday and on Sunday, during the weekly flower market

This past weekend was a bank holiday, and a chance to explore London's East End. The Geffrye is a former C18th almshouse in an area called Hoxton now converted to a museum of period living rooms of the urban middle class. Starts in C17th and ends in 2000, and it's another excellent show. On Sunday, the cobbled Columbia Road is transformed into a flower and plant market. The vendors have very distinctive East End accents, and the traders shout out come-ons, and are often very funny. One flower seller gave a good ribbing to a customer who innocently asked: "are these flowers fresh?" "Oh, no, darlin'," was the quick reply, "they're totally dead, they's been cut, you see, so they are dead, stone dead." When my friend asked one vendor for an extra plastic bag to carry the plants she'd just bought, the seller demurred, proclaiming: "oh no, dear no need for more bags, you see. See this bag, that's one dead penguin, so that's four dead penguins if you take any more bags." Hard to argue with that, I suppose.

The narrow street was packed with stands selling all types of cut flowers, as well as small shrubs, potted plants, vegetable starts and flower seedlings. The market runs until 2pm. Lots of other weekend markets in this area: Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane and Spitalfields. If I have time, I'll have to come back.

London's hosting of the Olympics in 2012 will likely have an impact on the area. Currently it's a mix of gritty low income housing and upscale gentrification. I wonder what it will be like in 2 years' time.