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.

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!

1)    Leather Lane

One of London’s oldest markets, Leather Lane, sells fruit, vegetables, flowers and fabric,  but what we really love is the food! Our favourite is Daddy Donkey Mexican grill’s tasty burritos. Monday to Friday

2)    Earlham Street Market

For beautiful, fresh flowers head to Earlham Street Market, off Seven Dials. Here you’ll find both exotic and local flowers on display, as well as second hand clothes, funky T-shirts and bric-a-brac. Monday to Saturday

3)    eat.st

The newest addition to the Camden street food scene, eat.st collective, is a rotating group of food vendors behind King’s Cross station. We can’t go past The Ribman and his special hot sauce without buying some! Monday to Friday

4)    Camden Farmers’ Markets

Camden has three farmers markets: Bloomsbury Farmers’ Market (Thursdays) offers loyal customers a lunch club card which gets you your sixth lunch free. Look for Les Lawrence of Christchurch Fish, who sells fresh fish from Dorset at St John’s Wood Farmers’ Market (Saturdays). Parliament Hill Farmers’ Market (Saturdays) serves up award-winning sausages from Giggly Pig Farm.

5)    Queen’s Crescent

Visiting Queen’s Crescent Market is like stepping back in time! Rumoured to be London’s oldest market, it’s still very popular with locals. One of the first Sainsbury’s stores was at number 159 and Mr Sainsbury lived above the shop.  The market sells discount everything – clothing, flowers, household items and there’s a great selection of food stalls selling international cuisine at very reasonable prices. Thursdays and Saturdays

Find out more about Camden on Love Camden’s website.

What’s your favourite market in Camden?

Maxine Clayman is a travel writer and editor of the blog My Hidden Gems. In the next in our World In London series she meets Croatian born Ana-Maria Volaric who explains why it’s her mission to bring a taste of Croatia to London.

“Last year my husband Chris and I decided to set up D’Issa, a company selling exclusively Croatian produce.

“I’ve lived in London now for 24 years and I’m married to a North Londoner. I’m originally from Zagreb and I still feel incredibly connected to my roots. I wanted to draw on my knowledge and passion for Croatian culture and introduce Londoners and visitors to the capital to Croatian food.

“Currently we’re the only Croatian retailer in the UK. We have a stall in Borough Market and we also sell to Fortnum & Mason and a couple of specialist delis in London. Our merchandise is quite high end, which may surprise a lot of people, as Croatia isn’t a country that’s necessarily associated with quality cuisine.

“There are only around 2,000 Croats living in London so our food is still relatively new to people. My aim is to educate Londoners about one of the best-kept gastronomic secrets Europe has to offer. For instance, it might come as a surprise to discover that some of the finest truffles in the world can be found in Istria, Croatia.

“Our fig products are proving incredibly popular with Londoners. Smokvenjak is a traditional Croatian fig cake made from dried figs, almonds, lemon juice, raisins, rosemary and sage. It’s packed with natural energy, so it’s good for athletes, and you can use it as a base for canapés, with cheese or ham.

“Pumpkin seed oil is another unique item that we stock. It’s got a wonderfully nutty flavour and is great for roasting and marinating meats. But my top tip is to drizzle it over vanilla ice-cream. Delicious.”

Visit D’Issa at Borough Market on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the Jubilee Market area. www.dissa.co.uk

We asked Independent Shoreditch for some highlights and advice on how to get the best from Columbia Road flower market this Christmas:

1) Closing time bargains. Although you – quite literally – get the pick of the bunch when the market opens at 8am, swoop in at 3pm for the best bargains. The louder the barrow boys shout, the better the deals.

2) Independent inspiration. There’s a total absence of high street chains on Columbia Road, giving your Christmas gifts the independent edge. Try Nelly Duff for art, Vintage Heaven for antiques, and Treacle for as many cakes as you can carry.

3) Christmas trees to make the neighbours blush. The market is a brilliant place to pick up a Christmas tree because of the variety on offer, from tiny potted trees to Trafalgar Square-worthy wonders. Check your ceiling height before you leave home.

4) Mouth-watering Sunday lunch. If you get peckish, try either Brawn or The Royal Oak. Brawn offers strictly seasonal fare, with as much as possible coming from local suppliers, while The Royal Oak still carries some kudos from its days as an early-morning watering hole for the market’s traders.

5) Strong arm tactics. All the plants and presents can add up. Be prepared to flex your arm muscles on the way home if you’ve over-committed yourself. Or alternatively, hope that Santa has also done his shopping on Columbia Road.

Columbia Road flower market and shops are open from 8am until about 3pm every Sunday. The shops will also be opening late every Wednesday in the run up to Christmas, on 30 November and 7, 14 and 21 of December, accompanied by festivities, seasonal food and live music.

London is home to plenty of Malaysian restaurants and once a year, you can experience the best of them in one place.

For the second year running, Malaysia Night is transforming Trafalgar Square into a Malaysian Pasar Malam (night market) where a selection of the capital’s Malaysian restaurants will offer up authentic Malaysian dishes from stalls on the square.

Sample Malaysian street food-inspired dishes including laksa, nasi goreng, satay and beef rendang. You can even buy Malaysian ingredients if you’d like to recreate some of the dishes at home.

You can also enjoy some traditional Malaysian entertainment with performance, arts and crafts.

This year’s Malaysia Night is taking place on 23 September  so put the date in your diary now.

See what happened at last year’s Malaysia Night:

Malaysia Night, 23 Sep 2011, Trafalgar Square www.malaysiakitchen.co.uk

Saturday sees the arrival of Covent Garden’s first creative-in-residence as part of the 180th anniversary celebrations. Award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams will be gathering the sentiments and memories of those who visit the area and transcribing them into short stories, video blogs, poems and drawings. He”ll also be on Twitter and Facebook, so you can share your Covent Garden stories remotely. 

The Covent Garden Real Food Market returns to the Piazza this Easter but it has moved to Saturdays, 10.30am to 6pm, meaning local residents, as well as the wider public, can do their weekly food shop at the market.

Visitors to the Real Food Market can buy the best ingredients and fresh produce to cook at home, from choice traders such as Mons Cheese, Sporeboys, Polish Deli and Woodwards Farm, plus food blogger favourites including Eat Like A Girl.

To celebrate the return of the Real Food Market, Covent Garden London is running Tasty Hour this 3 April, from 3pm to 4pm, during which time you can sample the delicious produce from the market for free!

Follow Covent Garden on Twitter for more updates

But where in London will you be heading to buy your gifts?

Will the prospect of a traffic-free Oxford Street and Regent Street lure you to the West End this weekend? Or would you prefer to shop undercover (and safe from whatever the weather has in store) at Westfield?

Are you a bargain-hunter who’ll be after unique gifts at one of London’s markets? Or an eco-conscious shopper, having a green Christmas?

We’d love to hear your Christmas shopping tips and recommendations, so let us know where we should be shopping in London this year.

Exciting news for foodies: a brand new farmers’ market opens in London tomorrow.

Sourced Market at St Pancras International has stalls piled high with fruit and veg, cheeses, olives, cakes, fresh juices and wines.

The Flour Power City Bakery stand is sure to be popular, selling delicious breads and cakes, and possibly the best chocolate brownies in London.

The bakery already has stands at Borough Market and farmers’ markets around London.

Kate Scott from Flour Power City was very excited about the new opening.

“We started off in Hoxton Street 12 years ago and we’ve just grown from there,” she said. “We tried shops but they didn’t seem to work for some reason.”

It seems markets are the place to be. Make sure you check out Sourced Market when it opens next week!

Red or Dead founder Wayne Hemingway was joined by Mayor Boris Johnson to launch a pop-up shop outside City Hall today.

The KiosKiosk stall offers rent-free retail space for budding designers. Over the coming weeks, you’ll be able to buy clothes, jewellery, bags, furniture, ceramics and more.

So head over to More London between now and 3 September to pick up an original piece by an up-and-coming designer. As Wayne says, “you’ll find some good stuff there that you won’t find in Next and Monsoon!”

Read about Wayne Hemingway’s London