Columbia Road Flower Market is one of many markets in Central London; a street flower market, it is located in East London. Columbia Road is a road of Victorian shops off the Hackney Road in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The market is open on Sundays only.
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Columbia Market was established in 1869 as a covered food market, by the philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts for 400 stalls. However, a planned railway line (for the delivery of fish) was never built, and in any case traders preferred selling outdoors. Prompted by Charles Dickens, she also built a separate U-shaped building nearby known as Columbia Dwellings, of several storeys, with a three-storey Gothic arch built into the brickwork of the central section. The market closed in 1886, after use as warehouses and small workshops. The building was demolished in 1958,[1] although the remains of railings can be seen in front of the Nursery School. Sivill House and the Dorset Estate replaced the Coutts buildings.
The market was moved to Sunday, by Act of Parliament, in order to accommodate the needs of local Jewish traders. This also provided the opportunity for Covent Garden and Spitalfields traders to sell their stock left over from Saturday. The enduring interest and demand for cut flowers and plants amongst people in the East End, was introduced by Huguenot immigrants (together with a fascination for caged song birds).[2] The pub at the end of the market is called The Birdcage.
The market suffered in World War II, from rules prioritising food production, and went into a long decline. A large civilian shelter, beneath the market, suffered a direct hit by a 50 kg bomb, on the night of Saturday, 7 September 1940, at the height of The Blitz.[3] From the 1960s, new rules forced traders to attend regularly, and the market enjoyed a new resurgence with the increasing popularity of gardening programmes.
The market is in operation every Sunday from 8 am to 2 pm. Traders arrive from 4 am every Sunday morning to set up their stalls. A wide range of plants, bedding plants, shrubs, bulbs and freshly cut flowers are available at competitive prices. Many of the traders are the second or third generation of their family to sell at the market.[4]
The market also has a number of shops selling bread and cheeses, antiques and garden accessories. There are also a number of outlets selling unusual international edibles, soap, candlesticks and Buddhist artefacts.
Much of Columbia road is part of the Jesus Green Hospital Estate.
The market is popular not only with plant and flower buyers but also with photographers and television companies who regularly film there.
Columbia Market was built upon an area known as Novia Scotia Gardens. This had been a brick field, north-east of St Leonard's, Shoreditch, the brick clay had been exhausted and the area begun to be filled in with waste (leystall). Cottages (probably evolving from sheds, serving the gardens), came to be built here, but were undesirable as they remained below ground level, and so were prone to flooding.[5]
In July 1830, John Bishop and Thomas Williams rented no. 3 Nova Scotia Garden, from a Sarah Trueby. Together with Michael Shields, a Covent Garden porter, and James May, also known as Jack Stirabout and Black Eyed Jack, they formed a notorious gang of Resurrection men, stealing freshly buried bodies for sale to anatomists. On 7 November 1831 the suspiciously fresh corpse of a 14 year old boy was delivered, by these men, to the King's College School of Anatomy, in the Strand. Joseph Sadler Thomas, a superintendent of police, searched the cottages at Nova Scotia Gardens, and found items of clothing in a well in one of the gardens, and also in one of the privies, suggesting multiple murders. The Resurrection men were arrested, and by an extraordinary arrangement, the police opened the premises for viewing, charging 5 shillings. The public carried away the dwelling, piece by piece, as souvenirs. Bishop and Williams were hanged at Newgate on 5 December 1831 for the murder.[6] The police had tentatively identified the body as that of Carlo Ferrari, an Italian boy, from Piedmont, but at their trial Bishop and Williams admitted it to be that of a Lincolnshire cattle drover, on his way to Smithfield.[7]
By 1840, the area had degenerated into a notorious slum. It is for this reason that Burdett-Coutts purchased the land, and established Columbia Market.
The market lies some distance from Liverpool Street station and Bethnal Green tube station and Old Street tube station; but is well served by bus routes 26, 48 and 55. From Bethnal Green Road the 8 and 388 buses serve the market. Shoreditch High Street railway station is now open, although Hoxton station, on Cremer St, is closer.
Parking restrictions and eager traffic wardens make parking near the market difficult. One solution is to park free of charge on the Hackney side of Hackney Road where traffic wardens do not operate on a Sunday.
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