Things to do in Shoreditch
The best thing to do in Shoreditch is Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday morning, followed by a walk south to Old Spitalfields Market. In the week, the Museum of the Home on Kingsland Road is free, Dennis Severs' House on Folgate Street is like nothing else in London, and the evenings belong to the venues around Old Street. Here is how to fill a day, a weekend or an evening, with real hours.
Columbia Road Flower Market, E2
Columbia Road runs off Hackney Road in E2, and the flower market fills it every Sunday from about 8am to 3pm. Some of the shops along the street also open in the week. The street has traded since Angela Burdett-Coutts built Columbia Market here in 1869, a covered food market of 400 stalls that closed in 1886; the flowers outlived it. See our full Columbia Road guide.
Old Spitalfields Market, Horner Square
Old Spitalfields Market at 16 Horner Square, E1, is a good second stop. It opens seven days: 10am to 8pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 8am to 6pm on Thursday, 10am to 6pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday. Trading here goes back to a licence from Charles I in 1638, and the Horner buildings date from 1885 to 1893. It was a wholesale fruit and vegetable market until 1991, when that trade moved out to Leyton, which is why the stalls now sell clothes, records and lunch instead. The Christmas lights go on at a party on Wednesday 11 November, from 4pm to 7.30pm. Our Spitalfields Market guide has the detail.
Museum of the Home, Kingsland Road
The Museum of the Home at 136 Kingsland Road, E2, sits in restored 18th-century almshouses and shows how Londoners have lived over four centuries, room by room, with gardens to match. Entry is free, no booking needed, 10am to 5pm from Tuesday to Sunday. Almshouse 14 tours run on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and its free Winter Past exhibition opens on Tuesday 17 November. From Wednesday 18 November there are candlelit tours of Almshouse 14 at £8 to £10, which is the best-value evening in E2 this winter.
Dennis Severs' House, Folgate Street
Dennis Severs' House at 18 Folgate Street, E1, is a house dressed as if its 18th-century residents have just left the room. There is nothing to read and, on silent visits, nothing to say. The American Dennis Severs bought the house in 1979, built around 1724, and dressed it as the home of the Jervis family, invented Huguenot silk weavers. Its motto translates as "you either see it or you don't". Tickets: Relaxed or Silent Day Visits £16, Silent Night by candlelight £25, plus booking fees. Book online.
Brick Lane and the Truman Brewery
The old Truman Brewery at 91 Brick Lane, E1, is where the weekend markets, including the Brick Lane Flea Market, gather. For the street itself, start with Brick Lane street art and Brick Lane bagels.
Boxpark, Bethnal Green Road
Boxpark Shoreditch at 2-10 Bethnal Green Road is shipping-container food and drink by Shoreditch High Street station. It opens at 11am daily, closing at 11pm Monday to Thursday, 11.45pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 10.30pm on Sundays, with a 5pm to 8pm happy hour from Monday to Thursday.
Film, theatre and gigs
- Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road: three cinema screens in a former leather factory and a live venue run by a charity; Manding Melody plays on Sunday 1 November.
- Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street: LUNG's Woodhill runs from Saturday 14 to Thursday 19 November, and there is a building history tour on Tuesday 15 December.
- Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane: gigs from 7.30pm in a warehouse with tube carriages on the roof.
- The Old Blue Last, 38 Great Eastern Street: bands seven nights a week.
A day, in order
On a Sunday: Columbia Road at 9am, the Museum of the Home when it opens at 10am, lunch on Brick Lane, Old Spitalfields Market before it shuts at 5pm. On a weekday: Dennis Severs' House by day, Spitalfields for dinner, a gig on Great Eastern Street. For the night after, see Shoreditch nightlife, and if you are staying over, our Hoxton guide covers the streets north of Old Street.
