Every Sunday, 10am to 2pm at West Wickham High Street Car Park
A LOVE of food and markets led Penge couple Laura-Jane Horne and Adam Cook to set up West Wickham market.
The venture took 28-year-old PA Laura and manager at BT Adam, 29, five months to put together.
Laura-Jane told Vibe: “We are really passionate about food. Adam is an avid cook and he likes to use fresh produce. Every weekend we would buy our produce for a local market.
“We thought it would be fantastic to have something like that in West Wickham.”
After contacting local councils, and with the support of Bromley market manager Lisa York, they were allowed the use of a car park in West Wickham High Street on Sundays.
Laura-Jane said: “We have had some overwhelming positive responses from all of the local business and the local people.
“The traders we have know their stuff, they are experts in their field.”
“They are traders already at London markets like Greenwich and Borough.”
Laura-Jane said she loves markets because of their unique atmosphere.
She said: “The food just tastes different – it tastes so much better than if you buy from a supermarket. It hasn’t been shipped in.
“In purchasing from local farmers and traders it is putting money back into the local community.”
“There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere of a market.
“We are avid travellers and if we are going to a different city we always go to the market. It really engages people.”
REVIEW
SOMETIMES new things take a while to bed in, while others hit the ground running; West Wickham Market is the latter.
From its first week, this market featured sixteen stalls selling great quality, locally grown and unusual foods.
Eager customers began arriving before stallholders had even finished setting up, and there was plenty for them to enjoy.
The wares on every stall beg to be admired, from small-scale handmade chocolates and cakes to Bromley-made chutneys and chilli sauces to great-looking veg and hard-to-find game like pigeon breast, duck and pheasant.
The food certainly lives up to founders Adam and Laura-Jane’s desire to bring good-quality, fresh food to the area.
TOP PICK
The Giggly Pig Company’s sausages – three for £10 on sausages, faggots or bacon.
With around thirty flavours of sausage – from the classic to the unusual and most in between – The Giggly Pig is a sausage lover’s dream.
The award-winning bangers are 80 to 85 per cent lean pork and the pigs are all farmed by Giggly Pig themselves, so you know the food miles are only as far as here to Romford.
You can buy hot sausage baps fresh from the stall if you are peckish, or try a generous variety of products cooked up on site before you buy.
I bought Pork and Wild Mushroom , Chestnut and Honey and Mustard and didn’t look back.
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