Victoria Embankment Gardens Summer Market brought together independent makers, street food and live music on a sunny London afternoon in 2015. I went down to the gardens beside Embankment station with my camera, found a spot among the deckchairs and came home with something rather more lasting than lunch.
From the Roberts London archive. The original film was published on 7 June 2015. This is an account of that visit, rather than a listing for a current event.
A summer afternoon beside the Thames
The day began with blue sky, fluffy clouds and the London Eye across the river. I had planned to visit the previous day, but rain had put me off. That change in weather became my excuse for a small diversion about British summer dressing: shorts with a coat might look peculiar, but sometimes London makes perfect sense of it.
Inside the gardens, the pace was slower. People sat on the grass, wandered between stalls or settled into striped deckchairs facing the stage. There was even a giant chessboard on the lawn. It felt like a small festival tucked into a familiar part of central London.
Designers, makers and live music
In the film I introduced the Embankment Summer Market as a new event for 2015 from City Showcase Markets. Its mix of artists, fashion and jewellery designers, food stalls and performers gave me plenty to explore.
The live stage made a particular difference. You could have a drink, listen for a while and then wander back among the stalls. I stopped for a beer from the Meantime bar and enjoyed the music. The film also catches the frustration of recording a music event when much of its soundtrack cannot make it into the finished vlog.
Noticing York Watergate
I already knew this corner of London from evenings at Gordon’s Wine Bar. Yet the visit made me stop and look properly at the stone gateway beside the gardens. What I had casually treated as part of the park was York Watergate.
That small discovery is one of the pleasures of filming London. A place you have passed many times can suddenly demand your attention. The original vlog includes my surprise at its age and its connection with the former riverbank.
For another visit to the same neighbourhood, see my archive account of wine and cheese at Gordon’s Wine Bar in 2015.
A Spanish-inspired burger in a baguette
The food stalls were difficult to walk past. Duck wraps were tempting, but I chose the blue Bocaface street kitchen and its Spanish-inspired burger.
There was one small adjustment: the burger buns had run out. Mine arrived in a baguette instead, with cumin-seasoned beef, chorizo, lettuce, red pepper and mayonnaise. I was quite happy with the substitution. As I said in the film, the bread was the delivery method for the contents.
The cumin came through, the pepper and chorizo gave it the flavour I had hoped for, and the improvised lunch earned a thumbs-up.
The Connection and the value of making
The market’s charity partner was The Connection at St Martin’s. That prompted a longer personal reflection in the film about homelessness, charitable giving and how I chose to help at the time.
What stayed with me most was the charity stall selling cards created by artists experiencing homelessness. I bought half a dozen cards and postcards. As someone who makes and finishes objects by hand, I recognised something in that exchange.
There is a particular mixture of pride and humility when somebody chooses to buy something you have made. Supporting another maker’s work felt personal to me. It also gave the afternoon a different ending: something to take home that carried another person’s creativity with it.
The film preserves my views and observations from 2015. Its discussion of charity finances and giving belongs to that original context; it is not a current assessment of the organisation or advice about anyone’s individual circumstances.
Watch the original London vlog
The full film follows the walk from the river into Victoria Embankment Gardens Summer Market, with the stage, food stalls, York Watergate and the closing reflections on supporting artists.
