Today I am overwhelmed and intimidated by Kensington Whole Foods Market. Floors and floors of FRESH. Everything is artisanal and privileged and specially stroked. Faux-naive chalk boards, and artfully tumbling riots of produce. Why stick something on a shelf when you can NESTLE it coyly in a handmade basket? Nothing ugly or blemished here. Perfect stuff for people who couldn't imagine giving themselves anything less. And so, so much of it. Undeniably impressive, and beautiful, but it makes me slightly uncomfortable. As a teenager I used to visit Kensington Market. Not whole foods, but a ramshackle indoor market of exciting clothes stalls. And over the road, there was Hyper Hyper - more of the same. Independent designers, doing gothic and punky street clothes. Old hat now - but absolutely the cutting edge at the time. If you could pluck up the confidence to buy something (the stall holders were a pretty intimidating bunch for a fifteen year old) you were assured of instant kudos amongst your peers. A jacket I bought there was the first piece of clothing I'd ever owned that made me feel brave.
Kensington Market closed in the mid-nineties. It's PC World now.
If you walk back down towards the tube, you'll pass a phalanx of familiar shops. Marks & Spencer, H&M and Gap. They all occupy the building that used to be Biba in the sixties. Imagine! Mick and Keef! Marc! Anita! Paul and John! David and Angie! I may find Whole Foods uncomfortable. But I'd much rather THAT than the inexorable spread of high street ubiquity.
Hand-buffed quinoa, anyone?
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