~ From the MD archives ~ Bermondsey Faire and Portobello Road

We are heading to Seattle tomorrow for the weekend, as my youngest daughter has a few soccer games scheduled there, so I though I would leave you with a repost from my archives (summer of 08)... I hope you will enjoy tagging along on my visit to a couple of flea markets in London...


While in London, I couldn´t miss doing some antiquing...! One morning, I took off to the Bermondsey antiques street fair, near London Bridge. The guide indicated that the fair opened at about 5:00 am, and by 9:00 am most bargains were usually gone, so I arrived at about 7:00 am to find the market doing serious business but not busy. Many dealers go early to find good deals mostly in silver and art, which is something I tend to pass because I am not knowledgeable enough....

I found the fair to be quite small, but there is construction going on to make the atrium twice as big, so it should become quite interesting!! I still managed to spend almost two hours, and even though most prices were high for my limited budget, I managed to find a few neat things!

I bought a souvenir teacup, a pincushion doll, a small posy box, some skeleton keys, some bling, a couple of pieces of old linen with trim and a really cute portable sewing kit, complete with thread, needles and thimble!

The very next day, I went to one of my favorite places, Portobello Road. I arrived at 8:00 am on a rainy day to find most vendors just starting to unpack... Don´t let the appearances fool you, it may look like not much at first, but most treasures are to be found in the numerous small antique malls scattered around!! Make sure to go in, you will be delighted with what you will find inside!! Even though I was warned that most dealers are very knowledgeable about the worth of their items and bargains are hard to find, I did not find the prices too expensive and most dealers were open to some negotiation. Some booths were absolute eye candy, and I would have taken more pictures if I wasn´t drooling over the gorgeous stuff I was looking at!! I was especially impressed with the many millinery and haberdashery displays around!!

I was very excited with what I was able to buy, some gorgeous vintage fabric, an adorable 1920´s wax wedding head piece, a couple of antique bone fans (which I gave to my mom), a vintage clock in it's original box, a beautifully illustrated children´s book and a small silver box. But my treasure of the day was, without a doubt, this absolutely gorgeous barbola mirror!! I have admired them for so long and now I can be the proud owner of a beautiful one!! I was very excited and even kissed the dealer who was the most adorable man!!

As I finish this post, packing is starting and I have some lovely pictures of our stay in Lisbon, including my visit to a flea market, which I will share upon our return in a few days!! I leave you with a photo of our kids in the lovely Baixa, Lisbon's posh downtown!!