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Have we got some blooming lovely news for you? As of September, London will have one more place to add to its bouquet of weekend markets. Chiswick Flower Market will be the first new flower market to open in London in 150 years. Launching on Sunday September 6 on Chiswick High Road, it will return once a month to the west London neighbourhood.
Organisers have said that they want to create ‘the Columbia Road of west London’. A total of 20 stalls – with a one-way system in place for social distancing – will be set up outside the police station from 9.30am to 3pm, ready to sell bouquets, bedding plants, succulents, grasses and specialty specimens for your garden or home.
The market will take place on the first Sunday of each month and will occupy Old Market Place – just a five-minute walk from Turnham Green station – with its entrance on the corner of Devonshire Road. It’s being set up by a team of local businesses as well as the people behind The Chiswick Timeline, The Chiswick Calendar and Abundance London (founders pictured below). Any profits made will be put back into the market and into Chiswick High Road.
Traders will include local retailers: shop Pot Pourri, market seller West4flowers, faux-flower boutique Lifelike Flowers and plant pot specialist PlantBe Studio. Plus, Chiswick Horticultural and Allotments Society will be present to answer any burning questions from budding gardeners.
From further afield, one of Columbia Road Flower Market’s regular traders will also be occupying a stall. Fellow traders could learn a thing or two from Steve Burridge, whose family have been flogging flowers from the east London market since 1926. Other stalls will feature garden specialists from outside of the capital and online retailers. And don’t worry: Wheelers flower stall will be open by Turnham Green station as usual.
If you want to load up with plants and are lucky enough to live within a two-mile radius of Chiswick High Road, there’s even a free cycle delivery service in operation. Volunteers will pedal across your new purchases when you leave them at the market’s own plant crèche.
Sounds like Columbia Road might have competition.
Keeping it East? Here’s all the info on Columbia Road Flower Market in the age of social distancing.