The Blue is a centuries-old street market in Bermondsey that pre-dates the new hipster food outlets sprouting in nearby railway arches.
This lively patch of Southwark Park Road was once part of that world of dockers and Pearly Kings and Queens and today it remains proudly working class.
Now part of a Business Improvement District, the neighbourhood’s market square is getting a £2.3 million makeover to upgrade shopfronts and create permanent stalls for traders.
New boutique apartment schemes include 196 Southwark Park Road, where a Victorian pub rebuilt in the Fifties has been bulldozed to make way for eight flats, two houses and three shops.
Prices from £450,000. Call Kalmars on 020 7403 0600.
Bermondsey was named best place to live in London last year by The Sunday Times, and though next to railway viaducts, this improving tract of the district has pockets of green space and a conservation area around Reverdy Road that featured in the BBC’s Secret History of our Streets documentary series.