Some of London’s best craft fairs and and indie shops are pulling out all the stops this festive season, with over 150 indie crafters selling their makes alongside the best of the city’s designers.
From east to west, here’s your guide on where to buy your gifts this Christmas and the best indie designer/makers to buy from.
East London
Columbia Road Flower Market, E2, has Christmas trees, wreaths, berries, twigs, bouquets, palms and more in a street lined with more than 50 independent traders, selling exclusive craft, modern design, fashion, jewellery, food and vintage.
Open Sundays 8am to 4pm; and next Wednesday Dec 18, 5pm-9pm.
Buy cut-price white bone china at Pot Luck and terracotta pots in all sizes at Columbia Pottery.
Shiny bright is the Vietnamese lacquer at Nom, with pretty ceramics/candles at A Portuguese Love Affair, smart sustainable gifts at Artisans + Adventurers and Mexican crafts at Milagros.
Traders are tightly clustered in the Shoreditch Triangle.
Spacious SCP (135-139 Curtain Road) is tops for design and quirky gifts.
Über-glam is House of Hackney with wool-filled velvet cushions, vases, lamps and more.
Labour & Wait sells Europe’s finest kitchenware (85 Redchurch Street; 020 7729 6253).
On the Boundary Estate, Luna & Curious has gorgeous goodies (24-26 Calvert Ave).
Skandium’s Christmas pop-up promises “all your favourite brands plus fresh faces” (11 Dray Walk, E1).
Up to 70 designer makers will congregate at The London Artisan fair, Dec 21-22 at Old Truman Brewery, E1.
Find jewellery, ceramics, textiles, homewares, prints and beauty potions, at prices from £5 to £200.
Ceramics and woodware from 75 makers are at Turning Earth, Arch 362, Whiston Road, this weekend, Dec 14-15.
West London
For night birds, Westfield White City shopping centre is open until 10pm this week, and then until 11pm up to Dec 23 (closes 6pm on Sundays and Christmas Eve).
John Lewis is bulging with design.
There’s Habitat, Heal’s, Cath Kidston, West Elm, Zara Home, H&M Home and many more.
Newly arrived is a pop-up for cookware/gadget specialist Lakeland.
North London
Crafty Fox has a bumper edit of around 100 indie artists and makers at its biggest ever market, this Sunday Dec 15 in The Crossing, 1 Granary Square, N1C.
Nearby in Coal Drops Yard is French Caravane for elegant ethnic homewares.
In Islington High Street, loyal fans love Gill Wing, at No 190 since 1980 with cookware, and with gifts at 194-195.
Clara Castner’s porcelain vases will be on sale at north London’s Crafty Fox Market
At Twentytwentyone (274-275 Upper Street) design is meticulously curated.
Push on to Aria in Barnsbury Street, where a Victorian school hall is stashed with more bright design ideas.
Central London
A short walk from Oxford Street is Marylebone High Street, a homeware haven for The White Company, Anthropologie and Designers Guild.
There’s a quirky colourscape of decorations at The Conran Shop, from a revamp of pleated paper trees to black cat and robot baubles.
Free wrapping is perfect with super-smooth blue paper and ribbon.
Around the corner, David Mellor has London’s best kitchen crafts (14 New Cavendish Street, W1).
The South Bank
Leave the festive chalets by the river with food and traditional crafts and climb the walkways on both sides of Oxo Tower Wharf, South Bank, SE1.
Here are boutiques for 26 homeware brands and designer makers, including lighting at Innermost and metalware at Philip Watts, with award-winning china and silver at Bodo Sperlein; Japanese crafts at Wagumi; handmade pottery at Sotis Filippides; hand-woven throws and scarves by Doreen Gittens, plus jewellery, glass, stationery and fashion accessories.
Don’t miss Suck UK’s large store on the ground floor — designers Sam Hurt and Jude Biddulph are the non-stop inventors of neatly packaged gadgets and gifts.