Whitecross Street Lunch Market & Comptoir Gourmand Patisserie & Café

Hyde Park Christmas Fair and Market

A huge facade for a pirates' den, complete with Jaws
suspended outside at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London

Going under the title "Winter Wonderland", this is apparently the fifth year the fair and market have been held in Hyde Park. I must admit that the South Bank Christmas Market, which I wrote on last week, can't hold a candle to this one. But it depends on what you want out of your visit.

We went again in late afternoon, hoping to miss the major daytime and nighttime crowds. Successful in this and able to view the lights coming on through the waning light, it was fun to see the place grow alive. The advertising for tickets to Winter Wonderland, is misleading. The rides and horror houses for kids, ice rink and cirque need ticketing, but you can walk freely around the food stalls and market. I wonder how many people have been put off thinking they had to buy tickets to the Wonderland.

Roller Coaster in Hyde Park for Winter Wonderland

The scale dwarfs that of South Bank, mainly because of the large rides such as ferris wheel and roller coaster installed. But the architecture for the stalls is impressive, too! Compared to the tiny 'beach changing hut' nature of the South Bank stalls, these are full store size in many cases and even a two-storey Bavarian beer hall. Some effort has gone to erecting these, but since the fair lasts from November 18 to January 3rd, I guess they earn their keep.

Bavarian beer hall built just for Winter Wonderland
in Hyde Park, London

The food stalls are almost exclusively Alps products: German sausages by the metre and lots of Bavarian specialties, including buffalo and ostrich burgers (!). We were able to find my favourite: Hog Roast (pulled pork in a bap, or a bun in America speak, with sage stuffing and applesauce – the usual sweet stuff, not homemade). While eating our pork sandwich, we listened to a superb rock duo on a tiny stage playing amplified acoustic guitar and electric bass with drum foot pedal. They had a great, full sound for two people and even got the audience singing with them. Wonder who they were???

The market is an extension of the fair and goes under the name Angels Christmas Market. Again the stalls are all unified wooden structures, indicating central planning and control. But the contents were not impressive: some Christmas decorations, lots of eared animal hats and jewelry shops. I think here the South Bank had better offerings.

London's South Bank Christmas Market

South Bank's Festival Hall and Christmas Market in London

Towns around Britain are holding Christmas Markets, as I previously reported for Durham. London now has two! These are the traditional Christmas Market along the South Bank outside Festival Hall and the Angels Christmas Market in Hyde Park.

South Bank looked absolutely spectacular at dusk the other day as a canopy of lights draped over the market stalls. The stalls themselves have changed from years past: from DIY tented stalls to wooden huts there for year-round use. The huts have oodles of goods and munchies for sale, but sadly, the crowds at 4.30 in the afternoon were sparse – all the better for actually doing some shopping, and viewing the Thames at night is always a fantastic treat.

Good shopping densities at South Bank

I'm not sure whether the lack of people at the South Bank was because I visited between the daytime crowds and the nighttime crowds. But it is also possible that the Angels Christmas Market in Hyde Park is drawing off custom. We'll see when we visit on a weekday next week!

Durham Christmas Fair

You used to have to go to the continent to enjoy Christmas Markets, but now many towns across Britain have one. Durham's has the ambience of a craft fair in a huge double marquee, though with none of the fun food stalls common to the continent (I remember eating a Hungarian cheesed sausage in a crepe cone at the Viennese fair – out of this world). This year Durham's double marquee had a café set up inside by the University caterer YUM (or not so yum).

Steve as the original Green Man, owner of the Green Man
Pottery, Brancepeth Castle, Durham

People who save their Christmas shopping for the fair must be in seventh heaven. Most anything you can think of is on sale, such as these Medieval Green Man ceramic creations. Steve, the potter, paid £250 for the privilege of marketing his wares here. That's an awfully lot of Green Man plaques and mugs needing selling just to break even with the stall fee.

Did I buy anything? You bet I did: four bars of exotic chocolates with flavours such as Aztec Spice, Hot Chilli, Lavender...not something you can find in the shops. And I sent them off immediately from the Post Office to relatives in the States for Christmas.

Hurry, you have two days left to visit Durham's Christmas fair! Mind, this year they have instituted entrance fees on the weekend for crowd control. Mark next year's Friday free opening on your calendar now!

Medieval Market in Durham

This weekend the Durham marketplace is hosting an outdoor Medieval Market. The advertisement boasted various food and craft stalls, so I went with friends to take a look. What a lot of hype! The market wasn't all that different from what they call International Markets, with Spanish paella, German sausages, and British roast pork sandwiches comprising the food stalls. Perhaps the only one with a medieval claim was the Noodle Bar, which we rationalized was a product of Marco Polo's tour.

Other foodstuffs being sold were honey, cheese and fudge.

As for the craft stalls, there were the usual trinkets from India, Sri Lanka and Morocco, but one exceptional stall was Lumina Jewellery, run by Sara & Picky Saund. The stones were wide-ranging semi-precious and geological stones (a ring made from labradorite) with truly beautiful and creative silver settings. Moreover, the stallkeeper, presumably Picky himself, seemed a knowledgeable and conscientious vendor, phasing out shell jewelry because of the toxic agents used in finishing the shells for mounting. The Saunds don't have a permanent outlet, but they can be found attending various markets in the Northeast.

-Anyway, we ate hog roast sandwiches (be sure to order the small bits instead of the pork slices) and sat in the sunny cold wind in the newly refurbished Durham Marketplace. A jester with a fake ferret was making the rounds, belching in an uncouth (medieval?) manner, while an armored knight was mounted on what looked like a Shire plowhorse, accompanied by a drummer. The banners and signboards were supposed to lend a Medieval air to the offerings, but they tried too hard with the trappings while lacking in content. I hope they draw a larger crowd on the weekend; it was a pretty desultory attendance, and few people, including me, were buying anything.