I’m lucky enough to live just around the corner from Ezra Street – a little gem that runs parallel and then into its better known neighbour, Columbia Road. On a sleepy Sunday morning, there’s nothing I enjoy more than heading out and joining the magical community that sets up and gathers here every weekend.

The Columbia Road end is one of London’s original, and now rare, cobbled areas and it’s on a corner along here that the regular Sunday musicians pitch up for the day. There’s nothing sleepy going on when I arrive via the alleyway alongside Jones Dairy. In fact, on a single morning you could well find yourself listening to everything from blues and Eastern European gypsy to folk and rock and roll. A recent addition to that mix is a didgeridoo beat-boxer, so, as you can see, anything goes.

A few steps in the other direction, towards Ravenscroft Park, is a yard where a handful of well-appointed stalls set up. This bit is known as Ezra Street Market and I’ve often walked in only to reappear an hour later, laden with goodies; books from Shaun, lace from Suzie, a teapot from Jo and a coffee from the local cart. Then I’ll pitch up on the curb, in a patch of sunlight just across from the musicians, and indulge in a spot of the best people watching the East End has to offer.

Image courtesy of Michael Pickard on Flickr