There’s no pussyfooting about food at Borough Market. The cheese pongs, the fish is wet and gaping, furry carcasses of sweet-eyed deer and fluffy bunny rabbits dangle from the walls, and any London cook worth the taleggio visits at every opportunity. And, if there’s any money left after filling the basket with gastronomic extravangances, across the road is a boozer to match, providing beverages with the same level of freshness and flavour and offering a distinct improvement on such post-shopping traditions as a case of Stella in front of the TV.



What’s it like? There’s been a market at Borough since before Roman times, they say, and in the wee hours the place returns to its roots as a trading post for fruit and veg wholesalers, many of whom take advantage of the Market Porter’s 6am opening to wash away the pressures of a hard night’s turnip-trading. But at more humane hours, the pub attracts a rich mix of punters, from ciabatta-chomping gourmands and office workers to wide-eyed tourists and serious beer-hunters, plus the odd Harry Potter obsessive celebrating the pub’s fleeting appearance in the last film. Many make themselves at home in the fine wooden interior, with its glass partitions and old barrels for tables, but more prefer life outside the frosted-glass windows. With the market on one side, gourmet coffee and cheese shops on the other, and a maze of railway bridges overhead, the pavement outside the Porter provides a vivid London street scene infused with a heady blend of coffee, gorgonzola, frying chorizo and last night’s stray cabbages.

What to drink? If a variety of full-flavoured, beautifully made beers is your thing, the Porter is paradise. The pub offers no fewer than ten constantly changing real ales, including such rarely spotted styles as mild, porter and old ale. With a haunch of bleeding venison at your feet and a pint of something rare and tasty in your fist, the queue at Sainsbury’s will seem far, far away.

The Market Porter, 9 Stoney Street, Borough, SE1 (020-7407 2495)

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