Exploring London’s Exmouth Market

The day Jorge and I stayed at The Zetter Townhouse in Clerkenwell, we went exploring. First stop: Exmouth Market.

Exmouth Market

This is a street I’ve heard about many times as a bustling area with great street food. We were there on a weekend. Like much of that area of London, Saturdays and Sundays are not quite so lively but during the week, the street is lined with about 30 food stalls on Mondays through Fridays for lunch from around noon until 2ish.

If I worked anywhere nearby, I’d definitley go back to try some of the stew from the famed Ghanian stall Spinach & Agushi or a salt beef bagel from the Jewish Deli followed by some glorious apple studel from Ion Patisserie. Of course if I ate all that on a workday afternoon, I’d never want to go back to my desk…

Still, it’s a lovely pedestrian street and well worth popping in to the creative independents and trendy coffee shops on both sides. At one end, there’s an old church. Across the way, a pub where a crowd of wedding-goers were enjoying Saturday afternoon drinks. This is The Exmouth Arms, which aparently is where the area draws its name from rather than vice versa.

It’s not a very long street, but we actually spent a couple of hours there. Quite a few shops enticed us in, just because they were a bit different. I found a place that supports London’s independent designers.

A woman was making bracelets from Liberty fabrics at the front desk when you walk in. We stood there for a while to chat. She said they had only just opened. The brand was called In With The Old. I bought a bracelet for my mom and a necklace for myself as well as a handful of pretty cards for writing letters to my grandma.

There were a number of other shops along the same stretch that we popped in to. It was refreshing to see a line of shops I’d never heard of before. No Accessorize or H&M in sight.

Along both sides of the street were little cafes or places to pick up a bite for lunch. There’s also Moro, the North African restaurant which I’m always hearing good reviews about. There’s a connection to the Zetter Townhouse where we stayed too. Mark Sainsbury and Michael Benyan own the Zetter Hotel. Together, they opened Moro back in 1997 and it has won a bunch of awards. There’s also their tapas bar, Morito, next door.

We stopped for tea and coffee outside of Metcalf, across from the random cafe sport bar with table football at the entrance. Turned out to be a fantastic place for people watching, and a sunny day to boot. There’s nothing like a pedestrianised street full of sidewalk cafes, fun street style, tea and someone to share it with to while away an afternoon!