Shops - Bayswater Road Market
Bayswater Road Market
South side of Bayswater Road, from Clarendon Place to Queensway , W2
Tube stations: Lancaster Gate, Queensway and Bayswater
Buses: 12, 70, 94 Sun 09.30-16.00
New paintings, drawings, etchings and crafts.
Bayswater Road transforms itself into an outdoor art gallery, every Sunday, with artists, painters and photographers displaying their ware on the railings adjoining Kensington Gardens. Traders turn up early with cars and vans packed to the brim with canvases and wet weather gear, whilst the pavement fills up with American and German tourists who honestly believe they are purchasing a piece of old Blighty. You can purchase any manner of painting on this mile long stretch of railings, from oil, watercolours, sketches and collages (think of 'Watercolour Challenge' or your Gran's front room!).
Work ranges from your typical London scenes, with Beefeaters and Big Ben making regular appearances, English countryside scenes in pompous guilt frames and countless pictures of fluffy dogs, colourful parrots and kitsch kittens. For those of you who wish to have your portrait recreated, a brief head and shoulders sketch will set you back £5, whilst a full-length sketch is £15. Jewellery and sculpture are probably the best bet for a little bit of creative inspiration.
Bayswater market, does however boast a beautiful environment with Kensington Gardens framing the (not so beautiful) art work, on a sunny Sunday morning a stroll down Bayswater Road can be quite positively refreshing - despite the unrelenting traffic.
Once you have strolled the mile long gallery, swing into Hyde Park and make a bee-line for Speakers' Corner, where you will be enlightened on subjects such as religion, women's rights and the legalisation of cannabis. This is a must for any local Londoner or tourist and provides an hour of thoroughly enjoyable entertainment. Speakers' corner has been utilized as an area to exercise the right to free speech since 1872. |
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