London is home to Europe’s largest afro-Caribbean market where you can buy a flying fish, a whole goat and get a tattoo all underneath the same roof. Over 300 stalls spread out from the station on Atlantic road, where the market was opened in 1870, and continue up Electric Avenue, so-called because it was the first street market in London to be lit by electric lights. During the 1950s the market became a focal point of the new Caribbean immigrant community and still today it vibrates with the off-beat rhythms of reggae and you can expect to find exotic fruits and vegetables as well as salt fish, shark meat, crab bag and miscellaneous hunks of meat that are whipped up with hot pepper sauce in the traditional Caribbean style. The market is also a treasure trove for spices, herbs, chutneys, voodoo and Rastafarian oddities and those Steely Dan LP’s that have always been missing from your collection. The market is a bombardment of Caribbean sights and smells, but if you want a taste of the Caribbean try nibbling on a spiced bun from the bakery in the Granville Arcade as you wander around.

Written by  Alessia Horwich.

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