Known goods and unknown goods

A walk I thought would be about one thing turned out to also be about something else. I had started going to the revived Exmouth Market before Christmas and decided that today's gloomy afternoon would be a good time to walk down there to see what was on offer and to then head down to Borough Market so as to compare the two. My pre-prepared conclusion was going to be that Exmouth would whup Borough because the former is small and bijou, whilst the latter is big and mobbed to a degree that can be unpleasant. Yet my real conclusion is that both are good things in their own ways and whilst walking between them it occurred to me that the quiet and not-so-well-known walk from Clerkenwell through the City is great in its interesting and subdued way, just as the second leg, along the Millennium Bridge and the South Bank to Borough, is fantastic even if it is packed out with people.

At Exmouth Market I picked up some raspberry macaroons from a stall called Machiavelli and some rye and walnut+raisin bread from De Gustibus (a Borough import), which was two-for-one by the time I walked past. The macaroons are just sensational with an unbelievably richly raspberry flavour. Not as cutely packaged as Laduree macaroons from Harrods, but at a £1 each, about one third of the price. At Borough I picked up some mature cheshire from Mrs Bourne's which is just the kind of thing that Borough does well: presenting an opportunity for a really top-class regional cheese producer to sell good quantities of their product and providing customers with a chance to buy a really authentic version of a great British cheese which is leagues away from supermarket versions, yet not that much more expensive.

Since the walk was proving so enjoyable I decided to add an extra leg and head along the river from Borough to Bermondsey, which is for my money the best dusk walk in London (especially when started from Bermondsey) because there's a great romance to the city as the lights come on, on Tower Bridge, in the City, over towards Canary Wharf and on the river boats. The other fantastic thing about this stretch of the river is that you finish up at The Angel, with its lovely terrace looking over the river. A great place to enjoy a Sam Smith's stout and to reflect on the well-known walks and markets and the little-known ones being, as they say, all good.