London Shopping By Neighborhood

• Westminster

Westminster is filled with chains. The area is worth seeing for the sights, but die-hard shoppers might be best served by looking elsewhere. Westminster Bookshop, 8 Artillery Row ( 020 7802 0018 ;www ...more

• Marylebone and Regent's Park

It's Only Rock ‘N' Roll, 230 Baker St. ( 020 7224 0277; www.itsonlyrocknrolllondon.co.uk) London is known for its rich musical history, and It's Only Rock ‘N' Roll exploits that fact as much ...more

• Bayswater

Bayswater is full of quirky little shops, though it's not a major shopping center like Notting Hill. Bayswater Market, Bayswater Rd. Every Sunday, local artists of all media and skill levels decorate ...more

• Chelsea

Shopping in Chelsea runs the gamut, with stores from the neighborhoods punk-rock salad days to a stifling amount of kitchen and home shops. Still, if you want to trick out your hostel room, we’ve seen ...more

• Kensington And Earl’S Court

Bookthrift, 22 Thurloe St. ( 020 7589 2916) Advertising "Quality Books at Bargain Prices," Bookthrift buys overstock books off publishers, meaning they can sell new books at used prices. Featuring a wide ...more

• Knightsbridge And Belgravia

Mostly posh shops and chains, Knightsbridge isn’t the most friendly place for shopping, price-wise. However, the spectacle of its famous department stores make browsing enjoyable. Harrods, 87-135 Brompton ...more

• Notting Hill

Like we said, Portobello Rd. is truly where it’s at. Otherwise, shopping options in Notting Hill consist mainly of antique stores, souvenir sellers and high-end clothing shops. Music and Video Exchange ...more

• The South Bank

Marcus Campbell Art Books, 43 Holland St. ( 020 7261 0111; www.marcuscampbell.co.uk) Close enough both in theme and proximity to the Tate Modern to be its unofficial bookstore, Marcus Campbell Art Books ...more

• The West End

Shopping in the West End is more student-oriented than most areas in London. Filled with cool independent stores, most of them selling books, CDs, vinyls and more vintage clothes than the Motown stars ...more

• Docklands

Corporate Docklands has gone its own way from the rest of East London with huge Cabot Place and Canada Place malls. The newest addition, the Jubilee Place shopping center, sits a mere 2min. walk across ...more

• Whitechapel And The East End

In East London, street markets are lively and widespread, providing some of the most unique shopping in the area. Spitalfields, widely recognized as London’s best market, offers a tasty weekend display ...more

• Greenwich

While Greenwich’s numerous weekend markets may not rival those of the East End, the longer trek tends to weed out the casual from the hard-core shoppers—you can expect Sundays to be less crowded here ...more

• Holborn

Holborn is not a top shopping destination, especially in comparison to nearby Covent Garden. High Holborn is a busy road with a few common chains, while Fleet Street hosts a number of indistinguishable ...more

• Mayfair And St. James’S

Near Piccadilly, a number of Regency and Victorian arcades are lined with boutiques whose less interesting wares have changed little in the last hundred years. The oldest is the Royal Opera Arcade, between ...more

• Soho

Soho’s eternal trendiness has made it one of the world’s top shopping destinations. The record stores of D’Arblay and Berwick Street will please any music fan. Denmark Street, on the eastern fringe ...more

• Covent Garden And The Strand

Once the hottest proving ground for new designers, Covent Garden is gradually being overtaken by large clothing chains: almost every store with an eye on the youth market has more than one shop in the ...more

• Bloomsbury

Not surprisingly, Bloomsbury’s main commodity (other than A-level acumen) is books; it is commonly known as the heart of British bookselling. The streets around the British Museum are crammed with specialist ...more

• Camden Town, King’S Cross, And Islington

North London offers a bevy of shopping options, from the upmarket boutiques in Islington to the outrageous alternative shops on Camden High Street. The Camden Markets are some of London’s best; they ...more

• West London

Not much more than chain-store shopping exists in and around Hammersmith and Shoreditch; it may be the place to beat the crowds of Oxford Street, but not necessarily the place for bargains. The main roads ...more