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Columbia Road Flower Market
Piers Allardyce / Time Out

Bethnal Green area guide

Discover brilliant bars, quality restaurants and loads of things to do in Bethnal Green

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Bourgeois? Nah mate, Bethnal Green’s still got that rough ’n’ ready East End flavour. The locals fall roughly into three groups: old-school embedded East Enders, Bangladeshi families an recently arrived professionals. And the best thing is that everyone gets along famously, whether it’s strolling around at Columbia Road Flower Market, partying at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, or eating and drinking at one of the many quality pubs, bars or restaurants the area has to offer.

What are your favourite Bethnal Green haunts? Let us know in the comments.

The best bits of Bethnal Green

16 great things to do on Hackney Road

16 great things to do on Hackney Road

Despite weaving its way through some of the east’s trendiest bits, Hackney Road was until relatively recently a bit of a nothingy stretch of pavement. You’d...

Restaurants in Bethnal Green

Typing Room

Typing Room

  • 4 out of 5 stars

Could Typing Room be the next big thing? It has all the right ingredients. The room – once using for mayoral correspondence, now part of Bethnal Green’s Town...

Ink

Ink

  • 3 out of 5 stars

Obscure locations are all the rage when it comes to Nordic cuisine. One of the top restaurants in Sweden – Fäviken – is so remote that an overnight stay is a...

E Pellicci

E Pellicci

  • 5 out of 5 stars

If ever proof were needed that all caffs are not equal, this Grade-II listed greasy spoon on Bethnal Green Road is it. The food may not be much more than...

Brawn

Brawn

  • 5 out of 5 stars

Brawn is the second offering from the team behind Terroirs (and most recently, Soif), and is nicely pitched to appeal to a hip east London crowd without...

Bethnal Green highlights

Columbia Road Flower Market

Columbia Road Flower Market

Join the throng at Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday. The advice about turning up at 2pm for knockdown prices has long become a victim of its own success,...

V&A Museum of Childhood

V&A Museum of Childhood

Home to one of the world's finest collections of children's toys, dolls' houses, games and costumes, the V&A Museum of Childhood shines brighter than ever...

Bethnal Green Working Men's Club

Bethnal Green Working Men's Club

Bethnal Green Working Men's Club has incubated many of London's leftfield performers, from interactive theatre crew You Me Bum Bum Train to trannytastic party...

Spitalfields City Farm

Spitalfields City Farm

If you spend Sundays munching bagels and rummaging for vintage bargains on Brick Lane, you’re missing a trick not to visit this urban oasis built in a former...

Bars and pubs in Bethnal Green

Satan's Whiskers

Satan's Whiskers

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • price 2 of 4

The demonic theme doesn’t continue too far past the name, save some Dr Moreau-style hybrid taxidermy. What was for years a closed-down Caribbean...

King's Arms

King's Arms

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • price 2 of 4

The Kings Arms is marooned up a  side street, a castaway of 19th-century pub craftsmanship surrounded by 20th-century council estate. Inside, it’s a...

Star of Bethnal Green

Star of Bethnal Green

  • 3 out of 5 stars

A bold red and silver star adorns the wall behind the stage in this intimate boozer, which has fast become the epitome of scruffy East End cool. A young,...

Well & Bucket

Well & Bucket

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • price 2 of 4

Here is one of these born-again boozers – following wilderness years as a Chinese restaurant and a leather wholesaler, the Well and Bucket is once again...

The perfect weekend in Bethnal Green

Eat: E Pellicci

Eat: E Pellicci

  • 5 out of 5 stars

Scoff proper greasy spoon food at an east London landmark

Love London Awards: last year's winners

E Pellicci

E Pellicci

  • 5 out of 5 stars

If ever proof were needed that all caffs are not equal, this Grade-II listed greasy spoon on Bethnal Green Road is it. The food may not be much more than...

The Gallery Café

The Gallery Café

Vegetarian and vegan café that’s part of community charity St Margaret’s House. The live events calendar includes film screenings and live music

Columbia Road Flower Market

Columbia Road Flower Market

One of London’s most visually appealing markets, Columbia Road overflows with bucketfuls of beautiful flowers every Sunday. There are bulbs, herbs, shrubs and...

V&A Museum of Childhood

V&A Museum of Childhood

  • 4 out of 5 stars

Home to one of the world’s finest collections of children’s toys, doll’s houses, games and costumes, the Museum of Childhood shines brighter than ever after...