All varieties of fruits and vegetables are available and the market has a tradition of specialising in the most exotic species. The street markets of London have been a feature of the City for many years and the market in Berwick Street has been here since 1840 – not the oldest by far but certainly one of the most popular.
Trading is at its peak around lunchtime when the street turns into a bustling hive of brisk activity, and at the close of business many of the items can be had for little more than a song.
The present panorama is a scene quite in contrast to the salubrious sounding description of Berwick Street outlined by Edward Hatton (New View of London) in 1708: ‘a kind of row like a small piazza, the fronts of the houses resting on columns.’ Number 83 was the studio of John Hall, engraver; it was here in 1791 that he meticulously worked from the portrait of Sheridan by Sir Joshua Reynolds
The modern King of Corsica public house is on the corner of the Court. If you visit Kemp’s Court out of market hours when the cabbage leaves and the squashed apples have been washed away, you will find two or three barrows ‘resting’ by the northern wall.
