Looking for some suggestions on really interesting and unique places to shop in London.
Art, antiques, artisanal food, local crafts, anything not too commercial and readily available everywhere.
Also same for restaurants in London. Nothing too over-the-top in terms of price but some fun, interesting and unusually charming or eccentric pubs, restaurants, sights.
Thanks, Fodorites!

Take a walk down the King's Rd , from Sloane Square..all kinds of antique shops along the road and off on the side streets, also antiquarian maps and engraving shops,kitchen equipment, lots of boutiques and there is the wonderful, "Partridge's" in the Duje of York center.

Sorry, that is the Duke of ork! BTW Partridge's is a gorcer, with local products and many "gourmet" items.

I found that the best place for local crafts was at the Covent Garden Apple Market. There are several stores there, but there is also an outdoor market where local craftspeople set up stalls. The Covent Garden neighborhood is also very fun!

Covent Garden on Sunday is the absolute BEST!! Some really great craftspeople who have been coming to exhibit for several years. Great pottery, soaps, handmade cards and a fudge stand that is to die for, as well as a number of other categories. Covent Garden itself has a wide variety of cute shops and eating places. Its a fun day, I plan our European vacations around being in London of a Sunday, it makes for some really unusual routing!

Alfie's Antique Market is great & there's a good place on Sloan Square called Antiquarius (I think.) Both are indoors & have different stalls with different dealers. Also, the pub across the street from it is good for lunch.

http://www.alfiesantiques.com/

Here's a previous thread on London (food) shops/markets:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34824397

There's a book called <i>Still Open: The Guide to Traditional London Shops</i>, which is available on Amazon.com. A few shops featured in the book are: W Martyn on Muswell Hill Broadway (&quot;retailer of fine food&quot, Allen &amp; Co (Victorian butcher's shop in Mayfair), and James Smith &amp; Sons on New Oxford Street ( umbrellas and gentlemen's canes). I haven't been to any of these myself.

Portobello Road on Saturday Morning. Very unique and lots of antiques.

And if you go to Portobello Road on Saturday, also check out the shops on Westbourne Grove/Kensington Park Road. Tom's on Westbourne Grove is good for breakfast. This is quite an expensive area, but there are some fun shops to browse in. The Paul Smith shop on the corner of Westbourne Grove/Kensington Park Road is worth a look, even if you don't buy anything. And Books for Cooks, Blenheim Crescent (you can eat there too), and the travel book shop opposite.

And if you go to Portobello Road . . .

Be sure to get there EARLY. You want to get in, shop, and get out before 10:00 or 10:30. By then the masses have descended and it is difficult to walk let alone see much.

I usually try to arrive by 8 a.m. in the winter or 6-6:30 in the summer.

Thanks, all. Anyone know anything about Neal's Yard? Supposed to be a great cheese shop there with only English cheeses. Anything else there worth seeing?
Years ago I remember going to the &quot;silver vaults&quot; but have no idea where it was. Ring a bell with anyone?
How about Nick Potter art gallery? Still around?

Neal's Yard Diary is in Covent Garden. I haven't been to the Silver Vaults in ages, but I think it's still there; Chancery Lane.

The London Silver Vaults are in Chancery Lane between High Holborn and Fleet St.

Neal's Yard Dairy is the cheese shop. Neal's Yard is in Covent Garden (not in the Covent Garden Market itself but in the CG neighborhood) and the whole area is just FULL of great shops, cafes, restaurants. Plus the Royal Opera House and the Market . . . .

Oh - sorry. Didn't mean to duplicate Tulips' post. A phone call interrupted me in the middle of writing mine . . . .

If you are checking out Neal's yard also make a visit to Carluccio's..wonderful Italian deli/ gourmet shop.. and his cafes and restaurants are also exvellent

http://www.nickpotter.com/

I have taken my own ideas on areas for art, antiques, and luxury goods and for pubs and artisinal food, added those of others here, and put the results into a survey from west to east, to let you take in two or three places in a day

Kensington Church Street for art, antiques, and luxury goods, High Street Kensington tube.
The Builders Arms pub, tucked away at 1 Kensington Court Place, High Street Kensington tube

Beauchamp Place for art, antiques, and luxury goods, beside Harrods. Lunch or a pint at the Grenadier. 18 Wilton Row, Belgravia. Knightsbridge tube.

Kings Road Chelsea has a lot of walking for not many special shops, I think. Perhaps best go to Sloane Square tube and use your travel card to take a bus along the Kings Road and get off at any interesting shop.
Cooper’s Arms Bar, 87 Flood Street, Chelsea, SW3, has plenty of seats, and is used by locals.

I do not use Alfie's Antique Market, near Marylebone tube, or Antiquarius on Kings Road Chelsea, but hear well of them. The Florence caf&eacute; on Marylebone High Street is good for light lunches, and the road has interesting charity shops

The arcades off Piccadilly, such as Burlington Arcade, for art, antiques, and luxury goods, Green Park tube
Paxtons for cheese, nearby shirt maskers and tie makers, and visits to St James church, all on Jermyn Street, Piccadilly Circus tube

The West End Post Office, beside St Martin in the Fields on Trafalgar Square, has a desk at the eastern end for special or commemorative stamps. You should go there before you send postcards.
Just north of there, the Salisbury, 89 - 90 St. Martin's Lane. Mid 19th century pub. Leicester Square tube.

Stanford’s Geographical Institute at the western end of Long Acre, has maps and guide books of great range and quality. If you want a hikers’ map of central Slovenia they have it, and so long as your hands are clean they welcome browsing. A nearby pub is The Lamb and Flag, 33 Rose Street. one of the few wooden structures to survive the Great Fire of 1666.

I find Convent Garden handicrafts and foodstuffs pricey, apart from Neals Yard Cheese shop, but good to look at.

James Smith and Sons on New Oxford Street, for umbrellas and gentlemen's canes). I know and enjoy this shop, but do not know the other two places in Still Open.

Lambs Conduit Street for food shops and for the Lambs Inn, at the top of the street and the Perseverance, 63 Lambs Conduit Street, both with meals, environment and the atmosphere of traditional boozer. Russell Square tube

Islington, south of the Green, for art, antiques, and luxury goods, Angel tube

The London Silver Vaults are signposted from Chancery Lane tube. Please see http://www.thesilvervaults.com/home.htm
Shops behind the Royal Exchange for luxury goods. Perhaps with a visit to the small but good Bank of England Museum. Bank tube

Borough Market on Thursdays and Saturdays for fruit, vegetables, continental sausages and condiments. London Bridge tube
Neals Yard branch cheese shop, beside Borough Market, with the same range of cheese and zealous sales staff as at Covent Garden. The Market Porter pub, opposite, serves county ales and good but large lunches
Food shops at street level underneath London Bridge railway station

In the airport where you arrive please buy for four pounds the good AZ London Atlas Guide, spiral bound, pocket sized, with notes on opening times for markets and all else. At any tube station please ask for the free bus map of central London, as busses are better than tubes for many of the distances I have proposed.
If you will kindly e mail me your address I shall copy you my annotated lists of pubs good for character and good for meals

Welcome to London
Ben Haines
[email protected]

I enjoyed Neal's Yard and don't be shy to ask for tastings. I think it was Camdon Passage where I found a beautiful antique blouse.
Browns has alot of fashion you won't find here. A boat ride to Little Venice was enjoyable and also to Greenwich where you will pass the Cuddy Sac.

Can anyone recommend any art galleries, photography galleries, sculpture galleries where we might see some &quot;cutting edge&quot; type of work?
Are there any specific areas where artists have open studios for viewing and buying art directly from the artists?