When we reached Bethnal Green, I could see some obvious hesitation in my peers as we exited the tube station. Turning on Roman road, we walked down into what seemed to me the English equivalent of suburbia. But some of my classmates saw this road leading up to the market itself, and the neighborhood surrounding it as overwhelmingly “ghetto.” I may have taken personal offense to that. The stretch of Roman road, one of the longest roads in London, was anything but. It was cultured and lively, brimming with the happy squeals of playing children and the qualms of their stressed out, working class parents. Roman Road is a working-class market. But it is not ghetto.
Selling produce and quick eats at the very front of the market, as one walked further down the road it turned more into an outdoor thrift store -- a wonderfully cheap fashion mecca if you would. The demographics of the area were overwhelmingly Caribbean, with both Jamaican cuisine and vendors being the most prevalent.
Like Greenwich, this market has been around for quite a while. For the past 150 years, Roman Road market has been serving East London’s lower to middle-class citizens, mainly selling discounted adult and children’s clothes, furniture and jewelry. What made me love this market, was the quality of realness that many other markets (say Covent Garden or Leadenhall) seemed to lack. I saw a mother buying her toddler springtime sweaters. I saw a woman finding an assortment of winter coats she probably didn’t need “but they were a fiver how could I [she] not!” She laughed in front of me as she completed her purchase and caught up with her girlfriends on that dreary London day. I saw real life, a life that my friends, family and I also live. If that’s what makes us ghetto, then fine, I’ll take it.
Final Verdict: Totally Worth it
- Mereysa Taylor
Many factors come together to make a place, and people seem to be the most active and influential. Perhaps number two on the list, and painfully relevant to an outside market is the weather. Roman Road Market may need both of these to get off the ground and when we (22 American writing students) marched the mile from Bethnal Green Tube Station to a small street market offering very little to a few locals, we were disgruntled. The weather was unfortunate, even by London standards; the sun had revealed itself, promising warmth and joy, but what came instead was a shocking and abominably cold wind that cut to the bone. Due to our collective cold, boredom, and disappointment, this market will inevitably receive either horrendous reviews or none at all. It was up against a lot though: cold weather, a slow Tuesday, and the last market of 16 in as many days. Obviously, there are many places that would be improved by good weather, but this market appears to need a good day in order to thrive.
With warmer weather, more vendors and patrons would have appeared and brought this place to life. The warmth would have slowed me down and I would have seen that the objects and wares were fun and cheap; instead, I almost folded to the cold and bought a pink fur-lined coat. However, if I had wanted to, I would have struggled to find the vendor. The road filled with lonely vendors was a strange and sad sight in the first place. It didn’t help that the stands often appeared as vendor-less. Racks of clothing appeared adrift on cobblestones, coats and dresses dangled on chains, and nobody official was anywhere nearby. In the end, I sped towards the Tube after what may have been the only market where nobody in our group purchased a thing. But our short stay missed a lot. The Roman Road Market is incredibly affordable and surrounded by cute coffee shops and street art. The weekend—according to the internet—brings everything from retro-vintage women’s wear to English China tea sets. The street fills with stands selling cactus house plants and homemade yoga mats. For us, it may have been a horrendous Tuesday outing, but it might have been marvelous on a warm weekend.
- Sam Normington
Roman Road Market, while impressive in its dedication to the theming of its wares, lacks a massive sort of je ne sais quoi when it comes to atmosphere. Located a little ways down from Mile End and Bow Road Tube stations, the market really does make you feel that you’re at the end of the mile, indeed perhaps the last mile of London before it seeps into open countryside. The residential area which surrounds the market is charming enough, with playgrounds filled with laughing children and elderly couples walking their tiny dogs. However, there are also the sporadic piles of trash sitting outside dilapidated apartment structures, and the occasional Tesco plastic shopping bag will drift across the lonely road, while a one-legged pigeon forlornly watches on. It is a place you don’t necessarily avoid, but not the sort of place to avidly seek out either.
The Roman Road Market itself is distinctly lacking in the two most important things one would expect: Romans and roads, particularly roads built by Romans. The “market” portion of the title is an apt description, although the few signs along the way which advertise it as a food market are woefully mistaken. The market is almost exclusively clothing, the sort which one can find in Primark and other local retailers for a similar or lower price. The clothing is clearly manufactured, as it is available in multiple sizes on the same rack. While this makes finding something in your size easy, it takes away the feeling of elation which finding the perfect one-of-a-kind outfit in a market can illicit. And if the selection is the same as Primark, then why not simply go to one of the many locations located closer to home and save yourself the Tube ride?
- Kaley Whipple
Roman Road Market is not only far from tube stops on a cold, rain-filled day, but it’s a want-to-be American garage sale that spans a fourth of a mile with things that could qualify as garbage, hence why things are rarely priced above 10 pounds. It also has nothing to do with Romans, so the name of the market is misleading.
There are a few upsides to this market, including how many pups were out walking with their owners. One small, good boy peed in the middle of the street to mark his territory as if it were a patch of grass, which goes to show how he feels about the place. Garland peed in the street in the same spot because he wanted to overrule the dog and claim Roman Road Market as his own. Public indecency at its finest.
Another positive about this market is Domino's Pizza is nearby, and they’re having a deal right now on buy one get one free pizza. That’s right. Double the garlic-y crust and cheesy goodness for the price of one. A deal that can’t be beaten.
Costa Coffee is another bright spot about Roman Road. No one buys the coffee there, but they do make mean muffins and hot chocolate. A lot of Americans complain about the sizes of things in London when they order, claiming a large just isn’t large enough, but this isn’t a problem at Costa Coffee. Their medium is the size of an extra-large. Fun fact, there’s also a riddle outside the bathroom door, so only smart people can get in. Garland was not one of them
- Cortney Lesovoy
I walk down the road. It is long. It is, I fear, never-ending. I approach an arch that tells me this is Roman Road. I am scared, but I cross over into that dark place. Men and women are hunched over in black with hooded faces, crouching on the cracked sidewalks or standing hidden
in the clothing they sell, all of which are of a hideous nature. I reach out. I keep reaching but it feels like I am reaching out towards an inexplicable evil that, if I were to touch, would consume the entirety of my being. And then I feel it, the faux furs and synthetic polyesters. The cheap, battered sequins that cover shirts and the tattered flannels that look dead, defeated. I am defeated, lost in this place called Roman Road. Signs of wrinkled cardboard yell prices out at me but I have nothing to give for this road, this, I fear, never-ending road, has already taken all that I have. Joy, hope, and dreams of a better tomorrow are now just memories ripped from my body and greedily sipped by the lips of the faltering asphalt. I hear the ground gurgle beneath my worn feet and look to the stall keepers for help, but they are one with the darkness and the sinful clothing that are their only worldly possessions. I am utterly alone. I make myself continue down, down Roman Road, down past handbags and shoes that are of an ugliness so foul God Himself has looked away from this place. I am utterly alone…
I know not how I have managed to escape… Maybe I haven’t, and I am still walking down that stretch of Hell. Maybe a part of me has died there and is now a ghost writhing in agony, a ghost that cannot rest in those piles of cheap, ugly clothing.
I cannot rest. I have not rested in days.
And this ungodly, grotesque torture is, I fear, never-ending.
- Saunder Mayer
Modified into a pedestrian roadway, Roman Road is a clothing market with lots of attire to pick from. Prices seem to be very affordable with signs claiming entire racks are full of clothes that are just £2, £5, £10 each and so on. An abundant amount of attire options are also available, with jackets, shirts, shoes, trousers, suits, dresses, blouses, and just about anything else you can think of. Everything from casual to business to formal options is hung together and men, women, and kids can all find items here. Mixed in with the clothing are a few tents with other textiles like blankets, bedding, and bags to purchase as well.
It's an interesting area to shop; "Calven Kleins," "TooShop," "Huge Boss," and "Guci" signs hung from racks with items missing their inner labels. If authenticity doesn't matter but image does, this seems like a great chance to stock up on label-like items. Personally, I don't know enough about labels to say if legitimate items are being sold here with just their inner tags cut out or if you're potentially purchasing knockoffs at a safer black market of London. If you're searching for an outfit for just one occasion, chances are you can find it here for very few pounds. Everything from cotton to velvet, polyester to silk, and wool to bamboo fibers are offered here in a rainbow of colors, clothing styles, and sizes. Even undergarments like socks, undershirts, and underwear are available; I'd recommended the ones still in their original packaging, but some people like a little risk in their life so why not chance the other options?
In general, if you aren't looking for something super specific, try your luck at Roman Road. They have attire for all occasions – formalwear, interview outfits, casual clothing, and so on – so browse through the street, check out the racks, and save a few pounds by buying "Calven Kleins" instead. Feel free to explore this safer potential black market and then continue on to one of the small restaurants or cafes just beyond the street; you may not find as great of deals there, but the food and coffees still are worth a consideration.
- Caitlin Coutant
Selling produce and quick eats at the very front of the market, as one walked further down the road it turned more into an outdoor thrift store -- a wonderfully cheap fashion mecca if you would. The demographics of the area were overwhelmingly Caribbean, with both Jamaican cuisine and vendors being the most prevalent.
Like Greenwich, this market has been around for quite a while. For the past 150 years, Roman Road market has been serving East London’s lower to middle-class citizens, mainly selling discounted adult and children’s clothes, furniture and jewelry. What made me love this market, was the quality of realness that many other markets (say Covent Garden or Leadenhall) seemed to lack. I saw a mother buying her toddler springtime sweaters. I saw a woman finding an assortment of winter coats she probably didn’t need “but they were a fiver how could I [she] not!” She laughed in front of me as she completed her purchase and caught up with her girlfriends on that dreary London day. I saw real life, a life that my friends, family and I also live. If that’s what makes us ghetto, then fine, I’ll take it.
Final Verdict: Totally Worth it
- Mereysa Taylor
Many factors come together to make a place, and people seem to be the most active and influential. Perhaps number two on the list, and painfully relevant to an outside market is the weather. Roman Road Market may need both of these to get off the ground and when we (22 American writing students) marched the mile from Bethnal Green Tube Station to a small street market offering very little to a few locals, we were disgruntled. The weather was unfortunate, even by London standards; the sun had revealed itself, promising warmth and joy, but what came instead was a shocking and abominably cold wind that cut to the bone. Due to our collective cold, boredom, and disappointment, this market will inevitably receive either horrendous reviews or none at all. It was up against a lot though: cold weather, a slow Tuesday, and the last market of 16 in as many days. Obviously, there are many places that would be improved by good weather, but this market appears to need a good day in order to thrive.
With warmer weather, more vendors and patrons would have appeared and brought this place to life. The warmth would have slowed me down and I would have seen that the objects and wares were fun and cheap; instead, I almost folded to the cold and bought a pink fur-lined coat. However, if I had wanted to, I would have struggled to find the vendor. The road filled with lonely vendors was a strange and sad sight in the first place. It didn’t help that the stands often appeared as vendor-less. Racks of clothing appeared adrift on cobblestones, coats and dresses dangled on chains, and nobody official was anywhere nearby. In the end, I sped towards the Tube after what may have been the only market where nobody in our group purchased a thing. But our short stay missed a lot. The Roman Road Market is incredibly affordable and surrounded by cute coffee shops and street art. The weekend—according to the internet—brings everything from retro-vintage women’s wear to English China tea sets. The street fills with stands selling cactus house plants and homemade yoga mats. For us, it may have been a horrendous Tuesday outing, but it might have been marvelous on a warm weekend.
- Sam Normington
Roman Road Market, while impressive in its dedication to the theming of its wares, lacks a massive sort of je ne sais quoi when it comes to atmosphere. Located a little ways down from Mile End and Bow Road Tube stations, the market really does make you feel that you’re at the end of the mile, indeed perhaps the last mile of London before it seeps into open countryside. The residential area which surrounds the market is charming enough, with playgrounds filled with laughing children and elderly couples walking their tiny dogs. However, there are also the sporadic piles of trash sitting outside dilapidated apartment structures, and the occasional Tesco plastic shopping bag will drift across the lonely road, while a one-legged pigeon forlornly watches on. It is a place you don’t necessarily avoid, but not the sort of place to avidly seek out either.
The Roman Road Market itself is distinctly lacking in the two most important things one would expect: Romans and roads, particularly roads built by Romans. The “market” portion of the title is an apt description, although the few signs along the way which advertise it as a food market are woefully mistaken. The market is almost exclusively clothing, the sort which one can find in Primark and other local retailers for a similar or lower price. The clothing is clearly manufactured, as it is available in multiple sizes on the same rack. While this makes finding something in your size easy, it takes away the feeling of elation which finding the perfect one-of-a-kind outfit in a market can illicit. And if the selection is the same as Primark, then why not simply go to one of the many locations located closer to home and save yourself the Tube ride?
- Kaley Whipple
Roman Road Market is not only far from tube stops on a cold, rain-filled day, but it’s a want-to-be American garage sale that spans a fourth of a mile with things that could qualify as garbage, hence why things are rarely priced above 10 pounds. It also has nothing to do with Romans, so the name of the market is misleading.
There are a few upsides to this market, including how many pups were out walking with their owners. One small, good boy peed in the middle of the street to mark his territory as if it were a patch of grass, which goes to show how he feels about the place. Garland peed in the street in the same spot because he wanted to overrule the dog and claim Roman Road Market as his own. Public indecency at its finest.
Another positive about this market is Domino's Pizza is nearby, and they’re having a deal right now on buy one get one free pizza. That’s right. Double the garlic-y crust and cheesy goodness for the price of one. A deal that can’t be beaten.
Costa Coffee is another bright spot about Roman Road. No one buys the coffee there, but they do make mean muffins and hot chocolate. A lot of Americans complain about the sizes of things in London when they order, claiming a large just isn’t large enough, but this isn’t a problem at Costa Coffee. Their medium is the size of an extra-large. Fun fact, there’s also a riddle outside the bathroom door, so only smart people can get in. Garland was not one of them
- Cortney Lesovoy
I walk down the road. It is long. It is, I fear, never-ending. I approach an arch that tells me this is Roman Road. I am scared, but I cross over into that dark place. Men and women are hunched over in black with hooded faces, crouching on the cracked sidewalks or standing hidden
in the clothing they sell, all of which are of a hideous nature. I reach out. I keep reaching but it feels like I am reaching out towards an inexplicable evil that, if I were to touch, would consume the entirety of my being. And then I feel it, the faux furs and synthetic polyesters. The cheap, battered sequins that cover shirts and the tattered flannels that look dead, defeated. I am defeated, lost in this place called Roman Road. Signs of wrinkled cardboard yell prices out at me but I have nothing to give for this road, this, I fear, never-ending road, has already taken all that I have. Joy, hope, and dreams of a better tomorrow are now just memories ripped from my body and greedily sipped by the lips of the faltering asphalt. I hear the ground gurgle beneath my worn feet and look to the stall keepers for help, but they are one with the darkness and the sinful clothing that are their only worldly possessions. I am utterly alone. I make myself continue down, down Roman Road, down past handbags and shoes that are of an ugliness so foul God Himself has looked away from this place. I am utterly alone…
I know not how I have managed to escape… Maybe I haven’t, and I am still walking down that stretch of Hell. Maybe a part of me has died there and is now a ghost writhing in agony, a ghost that cannot rest in those piles of cheap, ugly clothing.
I cannot rest. I have not rested in days.
And this ungodly, grotesque torture is, I fear, never-ending.
- Saunder Mayer
Modified into a pedestrian roadway, Roman Road is a clothing market with lots of attire to pick from. Prices seem to be very affordable with signs claiming entire racks are full of clothes that are just £2, £5, £10 each and so on. An abundant amount of attire options are also available, with jackets, shirts, shoes, trousers, suits, dresses, blouses, and just about anything else you can think of. Everything from casual to business to formal options is hung together and men, women, and kids can all find items here. Mixed in with the clothing are a few tents with other textiles like blankets, bedding, and bags to purchase as well.
It's an interesting area to shop; "Calven Kleins," "TooShop," "Huge Boss," and "Guci" signs hung from racks with items missing their inner labels. If authenticity doesn't matter but image does, this seems like a great chance to stock up on label-like items. Personally, I don't know enough about labels to say if legitimate items are being sold here with just their inner tags cut out or if you're potentially purchasing knockoffs at a safer black market of London. If you're searching for an outfit for just one occasion, chances are you can find it here for very few pounds. Everything from cotton to velvet, polyester to silk, and wool to bamboo fibers are offered here in a rainbow of colors, clothing styles, and sizes. Even undergarments like socks, undershirts, and underwear are available; I'd recommended the ones still in their original packaging, but some people like a little risk in their life so why not chance the other options?
In general, if you aren't looking for something super specific, try your luck at Roman Road. They have attire for all occasions – formalwear, interview outfits, casual clothing, and so on – so browse through the street, check out the racks, and save a few pounds by buying "Calven Kleins" instead. Feel free to explore this safer potential black market and then continue on to one of the small restaurants or cafes just beyond the street; you may not find as great of deals there, but the food and coffees still are worth a consideration.
- Caitlin Coutant