Ticking Tricking and Trucking in Shoreditch

Where we went...
Albion at Boundary
2-4 Boundary Road
Shoreditch
E2 7DD
Albion Website
Columbia Road Flower Market
Columbia Road Website
Sunday Shoots
Sunday Shoots Website
The Hoxton Hotel & Grill
The Hoxton Website
Nearest Tubes: Old Street, Liverpool


 Waking to another amazing London blue sky day, it was time to dig out the passport and head East.

Like the three Mustgetbeers, Melissa joined Barbara Squared in Shoreditch for a day of London Rambling. We kicked off our day at the Albion, one of the restuarants in the Boundary - a converted Victorian Warehouse. It's a really interesting development including several restaurants and bars plus a roof terrace which we will most definitely go back to in Summer.


Truth be told, the breakfast at the Albion was pretty average with a small selection of predictables, although the place itself is a trendy, pretty cozy deli style establishment.

Despite being accused of eating 'either Tick, Trick or Truck' (translation from Austrian - Huey, Lewey or Dewey to you or I) by a horrified Barbara P, I pressed on and tried the only vaguely adventurous thing on the menu - Duck Eggs on Toast. Tasted like plain old chickeny ones to me. But then I am a bit of a gourmet heathen. Melissa tried the breakfast sandwich and Barbara had the poached eggs and bacon. Both pretty standard stuff.

So in general, breakfast available to 12h30 - tick. BUT, No Eggs Benedict - Boo. No chefs specials or anything unusual double boo and a bit over priced to boot so sadly this is the first of my Room 101 flushes.

The rest of the day, however, was far more successful. From the Boundary, we wandered along to the Columbia Road Flower Market. Brilliant! We walked straight into an East End Christmas Tree Trader shitfight. I was offered so many deals I wondered if I had inadvertently stumbled into little Colombia by mistake. If you haven't been, I really recommend a trip on a Sunday. In addition to tons of flowers and plants, the local shops are fab - lots of quirky galleries, hole in the wall bacon butty stalls and fantabulous boutiques.

A word of caution though - at Christmas time it's not for the faint hearted. My quote of the day 'Watch your back love you might end up with a tree up your arse' yelled by a man narrowly missing me as he charged up Columbia Road with a Christmas Tree.

Retrospectively, we should have just had a bacon butty there or stopped at one of the little cafes lining the road or hidden inside the galleries. Ah well you live and learn.

We also discovered a brilliant playroom for the slightly narcissistic. It's the studio of Seamus Ryan, just off Columbia Road. Every Sunday, he invites members of the public to come in and take part in his 'Sunday Shoots' project. After having damn near broken his Slipstream Glamour Photo Booth, complete with wind machine and beauty lighting no less, we braved Seamus and his camera. The Jury's out till tomorrow but at least we didn't break his camera...

Once we'd worn out our welcome taking our own pictures, we headed back to Old Street and as clouds had come over and the temperature suddenly plummeted, we treated ourselves to an open fire, coffee and dessert at the Hoxton Hotel. I had a cheeky peek at the Hoxton Grill's breakfast menu and with things like bolied egg and soldiers, the ubiquitous Monsieur's Benedict, Florentine and Royale, quite honestly you could do worse than to stop off there on your way to Columbia Road...