Queens Market, Upton Park London

Ever since I moved to the UK, even while as a student in Plymouth almost 5 hours way by public transport, I have always shopped in Peckham. I had heard about Peckham even before moving to the UK. When it gets to shopping, I can sometimes be a creature of habit, so even when I moved out of London to Essex, I still made the trip to Peckham. In my head it was just a 40 minute drive, but cripes, you still have to deal with the Old Kent road traffic which on a saturday is a nightmare. Many times people had told me to try Upton Park, but I never thought it could be as good as Peckham. I mean, you could find virtually everything in Peckham. One day, I decided to give Upton Park a trial after work. What I noticed on getting there was how much shorter it was to get there from Essex. I only had to deal with A13 traffic and that was it. I thought ooooooh, I like. I like, aaaaaaaa lot.

Next thing was how easily accessible everything was, and literally 2 minute walk from Parking the car. Pekcham used to take me at least 10minutes, and Lord help you if you forgot something in the car or didn’t take enough cash. Everything I buy at Upton Park I get from 3 shops which are smack right next to each other, so much so that I can walk blindfolded from one shop to the next. Boy, see convenience. I wanted to smack myself silly for being soooooo stubborn about going to Pekcham. Because the shops are smaller, as soon as i became a regular customer, the shop keepers extended perks to me. One particular shop keeper is such a sweetheart that he instructs his assistants to carry my shopping for me to the car. Like literally, i go next door to buy meats, and knowing how much i cook, i buy a lot of meats. I just drop them next door with the rest of my ingredients at his shop. All looked after. I go to the fishmongers, come back and the same happens. Once I am ready to leave, I walk out like a madam and his assistants carry my stuff to the car, just like shopping in Nigeria. hehehehehe.

Did I forget to mention that i get free stuff from these my regulars all the time? From free fresh fish, to free Maltina and crisps every week, to giving me cashback from the till so I don’t have to walk to the ATM machine. Yup. People just loooooooove to do nice things for me. hehehehehehe. In terms of fresh vegetables from Nigeria, you will get everything you can get at Peckham in Upton Park. Even some novelty items from Nigeria that you won’t expect them to stock, they do stock them. Cocoyam leaves for example. I have never found in Peckham, not once, but it is stocked at Upton park regularly. I am yet to find snails and Agbalumo for example, but I have hinted them and they said they will see about stocking it in the new year. Fingers crossed.

There’s a mini bustling fish market here for all the fresh fish and seafood that you need

I can’t visit all the markets alone, so if you would like to contribute to this feature of the site, i.e. if you would like to be a DK Market Reporter, no matter where in the world that you live, please let me know. I will provide login details for you to write a feature, upload your pictures, which will be vetted by the Editor, and then go live.