TNRA Directory

from TNRA newsletter Autumn 2010

Since the Borough Market started to develop as a retail market I have delighted in doing all my food shopping there. If they don’t sell it, I don’t eat it. It was a pleasure to wander up to the market, meet friends, have a coffee and talk to the traders. We were set, I hoped, for the Borough to become one of the world famous food markets like La Boqueria in Barcelona.
All good things come to an end: the market has become a tourist attraction and has now attracted a whole new group of trustees and administrators who are interested in the ‘Market Experience’ and ‘the brand’. Less interested in serious food shoppers, the long-term traders and the relatively simple task of providing a space for traders to trade
All is not lost – check out MALTBY STREET/DRUID STREET and the surrounding railway arches. Just east of Tower Bridge Road.
Monmouth Coffee roast their coffee here. They open on Saturdays, serving coffee without the queue and, of course, selling their beans. There was a wine tasting going on last week along with the coffee.
Neal’s Yard bring down a selection of cheeses and dairy.
St John’s Bakery sell their bread here and are going to start baking bread.
Booths, famous wholesalers and mushroom purveyors, have decamped to Druid Street from the Borough Market, so we still have the huge range of fruit and vegetables that only a wholesaler can offer direct to the retail trade. At 104 Druid Street you will find a collective of specialist food importers, Swiss cheese, smoked sausages and pickles from Topolski, handmade pastas, beef and lamb.
Back under the Arches and to the left is Fern Verrow with its delightful stall offering fresh grown fruit and vegetables and meats. To the right Kernal microbrewery, Mozzarella cheese, Italian sausages and Parma hams.
There is a selection of other producers who turn up on an ad hoc basis, a delicious ice cream maker with a coriander ice cream …
If you are missing anything, there is the Bermondsey Square farmers market on the way home, where you will find more Borough Market favourites have got additional stalls.

Reviewer: Ali Walker, posted: 15 December 2010