Church Street Market

The turnaround from Portobello Road Market to Church Street is something out of the ordinary. I guess the only comparison I could make is to what I experienced today; having spent the weekend in Krakow, I ventured back to London early this morning. Waking up in Krakow and some six hours later being back on the High Street in Kensington is a sound comparison.

Portobello is lily white, populated with foreigners from the more acceptable European states: France, Germany, Belgium, etc. But Church Street is nothing like this. We felt closer to Marrakesh than Marylebone when navigating the streets (printed in Arabic as well). While Portobello featured rare antiques that have no actual utility, we got the sense that the folks at Church Street sustained themselves off of the market. Toiletries, cheap food, clothing, and shoes were for sale. Some tents resembled aisles in Boots or Tesco. To put it bluntly, people go to Portobello for the sake of vanity; people go to Church Street to survive. It's not exactly Cairo, but it's as close to it as you'll come in London.

That's alright. I still love Portobello, despite its faults. But I love Church Street as well. It's no secret that London is a diverse, cosmopolitan city. One could argue that it isn't just the capital of the United Kingdom, but the world. Church Street displays this in a way that Portobello never could. But the juxtaposition of the two in this journey -- Portobello before Church Street -- made this market impact us more than it ever could on its own. We almost felt guilty watching women barter with vendors over something as menial as dish soap. It broke our hearts, to be quite honest.

While I'd love to wrap here, I just wanted to emphasize the beauty of a particular photo on this page. Third from the bottom, the cardboard boxes next to the hair salon sign. So much conveyed in that photo: diversity, poverty, etc. That Lauren, hell of a photographer.