Hackney in East London has an array of vibrant street markets selling food and products from all over the world. The video features three of Hackney’s best markets: Broadway, Ridley Road and Chatsworth Road.

• Find out more about Hackney’s markets and other markets across London.

Seven Dials shopping event

Great news fashion fans! Seven Dials and St Martin’s Courtyard in Covent Garden is hosting a traffic-free shopping evening  on 30 May where 120 stores will be offering 20% off from 5-9pm. The gorgeous shopping hub heaves with hip shops including Cambridge Satchel Company, Diesel, Kiehl’s, Office, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Superga, Twenty8Twelve and Urban Outfitters. Shoppers can also expect cutting-edge entertainment on the night – think mixology classes and balancing act window shows.

New Food Market

New market alert! One New Change Saturday Food Market is launching on 1 June with an appearance from celebrity chef Gizzi Erskine, who will be giving talks at 11am and 2pm, as well as signing copies of her new cook book Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts. After 1 June, the market will take place every Saturday from 11-3pm, serving up delicious fresh produce from across the globe.

Soho Flea Market

Roll up, roll up! Artisans, ceramicists, fashion and jewellery designers will be peddling their wares on Soho’s Dean Street on 2 June. The Soho Flea Market  will also be playing host to a slew of emerging music and comedy acts who will be performing on an outdoor stage.

Westfield Luxury Coach Service

Fancy visiting Europe’s largest shopping mall? It’s now become easier to shop at Westfield Stratford City thanks to a luxury coach service which will pick you up from central London and drop you at the East London shopping mall for five hours – just enough time to attempt to cram in the mall’s 220 shops and 70 eateries. Guests from outside the UK will be given a VIP pass, which guarantees discounts of up to 20% in a wide range of shops and restaurants. Happy shopping!

We love this guide to Columbia Road by Kylie and Patrick. As well as the famous flower market, the area has loads of independent shops and cafés such as Printers & Stationers, Jones Dairy, Campania Gastronomia and Marcos & Trump, all recommended in the video.

The World on Regent Street Festival

Shopping hub Regent Street is becoming a traffic-free zone this Sunday (12 May) to make way for fabulous global-themed festival The World on Regent Street. Shoppers can expect dazzling entertainment from across the globe, including Chinese drumming, tango lessons from Argentina, and carnival-style dancing and music from Trinidad and Tobago. Don’t miss it!

Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair

Vintage fashion lovers should hotfoot it to the Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair this Sunday (12 May). As well as homing 50 stalls that will be stashed with collectables from big-wig fashion houses such as Dior, Westwood and Yves Saint Laurent, you’ll also find a vintage manicurist and an alterations expert. Refuel at the tea room where you can feast on Victoria sponge or gooseberry tart, served up on fine vintage china.

New Baby’s Clothes Shop

New to Shoreditch’s fashionable pop-up mall Boxpark is hip kid’s clothing outfit Monster’s Baby, which is known for its humorous baby attire. Pop along on Family Day on Sunday 19 May for doodling competitions and an appearance by street artist Ronzo who will be showcasing his Jonny Fu toys.

Craft Fair

Pick up one-off gifts at reasonable prices at the E17 Designers Market on the evening of Friday 17 May. Expect ceramics, vintage-inspired clothing, hand-made cards, bags, frames, jewellery, cakes and loads more.

Carnaby Shopping Party

Anyone with a serious interest in fashion should hotfoot it to Carnaby Street on 2 May when it will be hosting a 20% Off Shopping Party. From 5 to 9pm, shoppers can enjoy a 20% discount in more than 100 shops, restaurants and bars in and around Carnaby. Register for a free ticket here.

Designers at Greenwich Market

A glittering collective of designers will be showing off their talents at Greenwich Market as part of Craft & Design Month. Wood turners, jewellers, knitters, quilters, print makers, felters and blacksmiths will all be available to give inspirational advice and show you how it’s done at A Subtlety of Designers. If you’re feeling creative, you can have a go yourself! 4-6 May

New Shops at Seven Dials

New pop-up shop alert! Accessories and jewellery brand Moxham is hosting a temporary shop in Monmouth Street, Seven Dials in Covent Garden from 29 April until 24 May. Expect leather and metal cuffs, necklaces and body pieces, all of which will be handcrafted at the store. Open on 27 April is Spanish menswear shop El Ganso, which will be stashed with bright shirts, shorts, tailored blazers and smart suits.

Soho Flea Market

Start saving up your pennies for the Soho Flea Market on 2 June, where you’ll find creative stalls aplenty. Hyped as “London’s most glamorous flea market”, shoppers can get their mitts on everything from art prints to vintage clothes, furniture to ceramics. And to top it all off, emerging music and comedy acts will be performing on an outdoor stage. We can’t wait!

From shop openings to designer sales, here are this week’s top London shopping news stories:

New shops for Carnaby Street
Start flexing your credit card because a slew of under-the-radar labels are opening up in Carnaby Street, in London’s West End. Here’s a sneak peak:

Iconic French fashion label Eleven Paris is opening its first UK store on 25 April. Inspired by music and art, the shop is launching with a campaign fronted by brooding rock star and style icon Lenny Kravitz. British design icon Paul Smith is also opening a store in Carnaby Street this month.

Women can treat themselves to a glam-over at make-up giant Benefit’s one-off beauty emporium, which is opening in June with a champagne bar, blow-dry bar, nail bar and treatment rooms offering waxing and spray tanning. Men, meanwhile, can enjoy a touch of old-school barbering at Pankhurst London’s first-ever flagship barbershop in the Newburgh Quarter. With Steve McQueen plastered on the walls and Sinatra providing the soothing soundtrack, men can be expertly groomed in style.

Follow in the dapper footsteps of rock gods David Bowie and Led Zeppelin by swinging by shoe legend Terry de Havilland’s new store, which opens in the Newburgh Quarter on 25 April. The shops homes winkle pickers, bespoke platform picture wedges, 80s platform sandals and stiletto mules.

Designer Labels at Charity Fashion Evenings

Calling all label lovers! Designer and vintage fashion fans can get their mitts on original pieces from the likes of Givenchy, Chanel, Stella McCartney, Christian Louboutin, Dolce and Gabbana and Ossie Clark. The items will be on sale at two special shopping events at the Octavia Foundation’s Charity shops on the Brompton Road and Fulham Road. Guests will be treated to special offers and refreshments. 5-8pm on Thursday 18 April at Octavia Foundation Brompton Road. Thursday 16 May at Octavia Foundation Fulham Road. RSVP info@octaviafoundation.org.uk

Shop Openings at Westfield
Belgian luxury chocolatier Godiva has launched a new kiosk at White City’s Westfield Shopping Centre. Melt-in-the-mouth treats on sale include biscuits, carrés, chocolate spread and gold gift boxes. Also opening this weekend is fashion-forward shoe and accessories brand Mascotte.

Rock Photography Pop-up at Seven Dials
Rock photography store Rockarchive has opened a pop-up shop and exhibition in Monmouth Street. The space is showcasing never-seen-before photos and iconic rock images of legends like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie. Open until 27 April.

High-street favourite H&M has re-launched its Oxford Street store. Boasting 3,750sqm of fashion spread across six floors, shoppers can expect a flashy shoe lounge, a chill-out area with swanky seats and a whopping 80 fitting rooms. Does that mean no more queueing for the changing room? We hope so! Super stylish and international blogger Susie Lau of Style Bubble has styled the windows of the store, selecting her favourite pieces from the collection.

Also open this month is Phase Eight‘s new concept store in boutique shopping hub St Christopher’s Place, off Oxford Street. Famous for their fabulous occasion-wear, the store is beautifully decked out with vintage-inspired furnishings. As well as being chock-full of clothes, shoes and accessories, there’s also a bridal space offering bespoke stylist advice to brides-to-be.

Shoppers can now connect with shops, restaurants, cafes and bars on London’s iconic Regent Street thanks to its new online community. The social media hub – named 24/7 – can be accessed through the website regentstreetonline.com. More than 100 Regent Street brands are connected to the hub, including Liberty London, Whole Foods Market, Superdry and Ted Baker. Any mentions of the area on social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, will appear on the hub.

Finally, here’s a date for the diary for any label lovers out there. Designer fashion recycling event BuyMyWardrobe is taking over the Kensington Roof Gardens with bargains aplenty on Saturday 27 April. Shoppers will get the opportunity to raid the wardrobes of more than 30 stylish women with designer goodies including the likes of Stella McCartney, Mulberry and Christian Louboutin. You can enjoy a sneaky peak into the wardrobes of some of the UK’s top fashion bloggers, including Ella Catliffe of La Petite Anglaise and Monica Welburn of The Elgin Avenue. Fashionistas can also expect complimentary eyebrow threading, express makeovers, a live DJ, designer goodie bags, indulgent treats and lashings of champagne. Cheers!

Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz’s latest venture & Other Stories is opening its doors on Friday (8 March) on Regent Street. The much-anticipated new launch is a one-stop shop with lingerie, shoes, bags, jewellery, skincare products and make-up as well as clothes. There are four different clothing collections, from feminine and glamorous styles to tailored looks. This is the world’s first-ever & Other Stories store, showing that London is leading the way in the fashion stakes once again.

Put your best foot forward at Selfridges this month. The store is paying homage to fabulous footwear by hosting a Shoe Carnival. Shoppers can expect an in-store installation of a yellow brick road, as well as a slew of exclusive designs by Charlotte Olympia, Nicholas Kirkwood and Rupert Sanderson. Also on display will be the entire archive of shoe designer extraordinaire Salvatore Ferragamo. The luxury department store shifts a staggering 10,000 pairs of shoes a week.

Rummage for retro at the Vintage Fashion Fair, which will take place from 11am-5pm on 17 March at Cecil Sharp House in Primrose Hill. Load up on unusual and stylish clothes for Spring, including affordable pretty dresses and skirts, unusual vintage scarves and jewellery. For those with cash to splash, the fair is also a treasure trove of stunning designer pieces, including Ossie Clark, Chanel, Dior and more.

In-the-know fashion blogger Nhuc Tran is opening a pop-up boutique for three months in East London’s hip Boxpark, the world’s first pop-up mall. China Doll Boutique will stock delicate dresses in chic prints and pastel shades. Set within stripped and refitted shipping containers, Boxpark is a small mall housing 40 retailers, restaurants and galleries.

Rub shoulders with the fash pack by snapping up a ticket for The Vogue Festival 2013 which takes place at the Southbank Centre from 27-28 April. Guests can enjoy cover-shoots, makeovers and workshops. The festival boasts a glittering array of A-list speakers including pop-star turned award-winning fashion designer Victoria Beckham, model and presenter Alexa Chung, model du jour Cara Delevingne and photographer Mario Testino. Tickets cost from £30 for each individual talk.

Finally, if you’re itching to flex your credit card this weekend, snap up a piece of art at the Affordable Art Fair at Battersea Evolution in Battersea Park (7-10 Mar, 11am-6pm). Priced from £40 to £4,000, there are paintings, prints and sculpture to suit every budget.

As London Fashion Week draws to a close, the spectacular Somerset House will morph into a giant shopping extravaganza for London Fashion Weekend (21-24 Feb). You can experience the buzz of the city’s biggest week of fashion by enjoying glamorous catwalk shows, insider talks and pop-up designer sales. The event is a shopaholic’s dream with more than 100 British designers selling one-off pieces, as well as their spring/summer 2013 collections at heavily discounted prices. Don’t leave without nabbing your free Radley bag! Tickets from £15.50.

Speaking of bags, The Cambridge Satchel Company has opened up its first-ever stand-alone store in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. Located at 15 Shorts Gardens, the former pop-up store offers quirky leather satchels, inspired by 1970s-style satchels, in an eye-popping array of styles and colours. If you want to personalise your bag, you can have your initials embossed on one.

British accessories brand Jack French London has launched a new pop-up shop at St Pancras Station. To celebrate the launch, the brand has created a limited edition St. Pancras bag. The deep-red bag reflects the colour of the station’s pipes, walls and tiles. Open until 13 March.

Are you passionate about popcorn? Then swing by the recently-opened Pop, Europe’s first popcorn boutique in Blenheim Crescent in fashionable Notting Hill, which produces an ever-changing popcorn menu. Forget sweet or salty, customers can munch on popcorn flavoured with orange caramel and chocolate, Bloody Mary, chilli and cheese, and English toffee and sea salt. Pop also sells a selection of cult drinks and sodas from the US, including A&W Root Beer, Vanilla Coke and Grape Soda.

If like me, you have a sweet tooth, Divine Chocolate is celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight with a pop-up shop in Seven Dials, Covent Garden (25 Feb-10 Mar). Expect lashings of chocolate to try, including Divine’s Easter range and new chocolate bar flavours, as well as a photography exhibition, Azonto Ghanaian dance lessons and the chance to meet some cocoa farmers.

Rationing of sweets was imposed in 1942 during the Second World War. People were allowed six ounces (170 grams) of sweets per week. Regulations remained in place until 1953 as sugar was in such short supply.

The end of sweets rationing in February 1953 produced a frenzy of sugar-fuelled celebrations in the capital: children gorged on lollipops and toffee apples, office workers sucked boiled sweets with abandon. By June, sweet consumption was up to eight ounces (227 grams) a week and newspapers noted that chocolate-loving men were partly behind the rise!

Londoners have always had a sweet tooth. By the time rationing was imposed, London had hundreds of confectionery firms. Among them were Handysides, a small family-run confectioners on Holloway Road in Islington.

The sweets in the suitcase date from the 1930s and are samples carried by Mr Alfred Handyside, who acted as the firm’s travelling salesman. During the 1920s the firm expanded into the export trade and Mr Handyside travelled, with his sweet samples, throughout the Middle and Far East, always sailing first-class on ocean liners. The samples include chocolate allsorts, lavender cachous, black and white mints and fruit jubes. These retro sweets are fast coming back into fashion today.

Guest post by the Museum of London as part of our Visiting the Past series. More about London’s history next week.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth visit Fortnum & Mason, which has a delicious display of confectionery and chocolate on the ground floor!