East Street Market also known locally as 'The Lane', or 'East Lane', is a busy street market

Street market

A street market is an outdoor market such as traditionally held in a market square or in a market town, and often held only on particular days of the week...

 in Walworth

Walworth, London

Walworth is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Southwark. Walworth probably derives its name from the Old English "Wealhworth" which meant Welsh farm. It is located south east of Charing Cross and near to Camberwell and Elephant and Castle.The major streets in Walworth are the Old...

 in South London

South London

South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...

. It is large and vibrant and is good for African and Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 fruit and vegetables, material and household goods.

Location

East Street is in the London Borough of Southwark

London Borough of Southwark

The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...

 and is between Walworth Road on the western side and the Old Kent Road

Old Kent Road

The Old Kent Road is a road in South East London, England and forms part of Watling Street, the Roman road which ran from Dover to Holyhead. The street is famous as the equal cheapest property on the London Monopoly board and as the only one in South London....

 on the Eastern side. It is located at 51°29′22"N 0°05′20"W.

The market runs down East Street from the junction with Walworth Road to Dawes Street. The main entrance to the market is from Walworth Road. A bus stop on Walworth road serves the market, with a large number of buses arriving from Elephant and Castle

Elephant and Castle

The Elephant and Castle is a major road intersection in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Southwark. It is also used as a name for the surrounding area....

 or Camberwell Green

Camberwell Green

Camberwell Green is a small area of common land in Camberwell, South London. It lies at the intersection of Camberwell Road and Camberwell New Road/Camberwell Church Street. At the North-East of the green is Camberwell Magistrate's Court, and at the North West is a home for the elderly...

. These include bus numbers 12, 35, 40, 45, 68, 148, 171, 176 and 468.

History

There has been street trading in the Walworth area since the 16th Century, when farmers rested their livestock on Walworth Common before continuing to the city. During the industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

, stalls lined the whole of the Walworth Road, but the market has only been officially running since 1880.

East Street is also the birthplace of Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 and features in the title sequence to the television programme Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

.

Produce

The market sells clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

, jewellery

Jewellery

Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to...

, cosmetics

Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...

, household products, confectionary, fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 and vegetable

Vegetable

The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....

s, CDs and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

s.

Opening times

It is open every day except Monday. Sunday is the busiest day as the market consists of over 250 stalls including the weekly plant market. Depending what type of Wednesday it is e.g Ash Wednesday etc on normal wednesdays they do half days instead.

Politics

East street forms the boundary between two parliamentary constituencies and is therefore in the unusual position of being represented by two members of parliament. The north side of the street is in the North Southwark and Bermondsey

North Southwark and Bermondsey

North Southwark and Bermondsey was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

 parliamentary constituency represented for the past 26 years by Simon Hughes

Simon Hughes

Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Until 2008 he was President of the Liberal Democrats...

 of the Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

. The south side of East Street is represented by Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman

Harriet Ruth Harman QC is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessorPeckham constituency from 1982 to 1997...

, the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Camberwell and Peckham

Camberwell and Peckham

Camberwell and Peckham is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like other such constituencies, it elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....

.

Similarly, East Street forms the boundary line between the wards of East Walworth on the north side and Faraday on the south side, both in the London Borough of Southwark

London Borough of Southwark

The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...

. East street is therefore represented in Southwark Council by six councillors, all Labour. The East Walworth councillors are Cllr. Helen Morrissey, Cllr. Martin Seaton and Cllr. Darren Merrill. Faraday ward is represented by Dan Garfield, Lorraine Lauder and Abdul Mohammed.

East Street is under the jurisdiction of Walworth Community Council.