Review: Camden Lock Winter Night Market

No matter what your yuletide persuasion – cheer or fear – with the rise of quirky vintage/pop-up markets, late night Xmas shopping options no longer depend on a dreaded trawl along Oxford Street, or soul-destroying slog to Westfield/Brent Cross.

We visited the inaugural Winter Market at Camden Lock last week (oh, how we banged on about the residency of Mark Hix Fish Dogs van the next day), and though the carol singers felt a little incongruous in mid November, the stage was set for a laid back option to pick up the obligatory gifts over forthcoming Thursday nights. (All the while indulging at regular intervals in a range of street food sustenance too, of course).

We perused some decent vintage clothes and affordable gift art options as we slugged away at the Orchard Press Cider Company’s cockle-warming hot variety – pleasantly potent stuff. And there was no holding us back from the soothingly spicy mulled wine being concocted by Chin Chin Labs Brew Bar. For a Lock trader more famous for freezing things with liquid nitrogen, their venture to the other end of the thermometer is an apparently effortless success.

With festive spirit now coursing through our veins, it was time to indulge the kids in some of the food. The aforementioned Fish Dogs were an obvious choice and as much of a hit with the under 5’s as the disturbingly ravenous adults.

While the little people moved on to big chocolate and banana crepes, I waited, mouth-watering at the prospect of the large cheese slowly melting and ever so slightly toasting on the Frenchie’s traditional raclette. We waxed lyrical about their toasties back in the summer, but this option – scraping and then smothering lashings of hot cheese over potatoes, with a dash of truffle oil and some mild gherkins – is the ideal way to embrace the market’s wintry incarnation. Despite what can only be one almighty calorie count, it might prove difficult not to repeat trial this meal several times in the run up to Baby Jesus’ birthday fiesta.

Warming up inside, beneath even more twinkling fairly lights than in the cobbled West Yard, a vast array of cupcakes and other home baked temptations lay in wait. We sampled a brownie from London’s Wheat Free Cake Company that was rich, dark and musky with good quality cocoa.

We inched home, satisfied kiddies beaming about their ‘midnight feast’ in the dark, even after the disappointment of being too late for Chin Chin’s nitrogen routine.

With several more Thursday events to come, this could easily be a regular family excursion. For festive cheer, present buying ops – and, of course, so daddy can get his next cheese (and fish dog, and cup cake, and cider) fix.

The Winter Night Market runs every Thursday 5-10pm until Christmas.

Words: Tom Kihl
Photos: Iveta Marhefkova