The first thing you’ll notice about the New Covent Garden Flower Market is that it’s absolutely nowhere near Covent Garden.
Having started out in Covent Garden in 1670, the then-fruit, vegetable, and flower market moved to a new 56-acre site in Nine Elms, where it stayed for the next 40-odd years. However, in 2017 it moved again, this time to just opposite Battersea Power Station. It’s a nicer, brighter, and apparently cooler site, better suited to both housing and browsing blooms.
You’ll still find all of the same traders too – over 20 different wholesalers under one roof – many of whom have worked in the industry for centuries. Well, their families have. Any questions, they’ve got the answers, not to mention plenty of cheeky chappy chat.
As always you’ll want to get there early, and by early we mean 4am. That’s when the market opens, starting to shut down around eight. It’s worth it though, the choice really is like nowhere else. There’s literally rows and rows of delicious-smelling, multi-coloured bunches, both from the UK and abroad. You’ll also find plenty of foliage, as well as house plants, and all of the necessary accessories. They’re all also incredibly reasonably priced – you’re buying before any mark up. Not that there’s a pressure to buy anything though. If you just want to browse, or you’re in it for the buzz, or you can’t sleep and fancy a change of scene, you’re also welcome.
Of course by the time you’re done it will probably be time for your morning coffee. Fortunately, Battersea Power Station as a whole went under a big ol’ redevelopment recently, meaning there’s now a whole string of new restaurants and bars nearby. No. 29 Power Station West is your best bet for breakfast, with a selection of dishes that span cuisines – everything from breakfast tacos with fried egg, chimichurri chicken, feta & coriander to a sticky kimchi rice breakfast bowl, with poached egg, avocado, pickled cucumber and spring onion – alongside local Caravan coffee and teas.
It’s like a budding community round there.
NOTE: New Covent Garden Flower Market is open from 4am until 10/12am, Monday to Saturday. For more information, visit their website here.
New Covent Garden Market, London, SW8 5BH
If you like flower markets, you should visit Columbia Road too.