Climpson & Sons/Broadway Market E8

So I finally got back to Broadway Market in Hackney after about 8 years...and guess what, things had changed!  I always remember thinking it was a cool area, with the canal at one end and London Fields at the other and I remember really liking The Dove but now you are spoilt for choice with all the cool stuff around this little corner of E8.  I actually had two missions - one was to check out the Saturday market and the other was to have a coffee at Climpson & Sons.  I have really struggled with being able to call myself a London coffee blogger without having sampled a flat white from this afficionados' favourite.  Anyway the good news is the coffee lived up to the hype - it was lovely.  As I had been told the place was packed but my local resident buddy Rosie and I managed to get seats so we could enjoy our flatties, chat and watch the hipsters troop in and out.  The food stalls on Broadway Market were top notch - I did the Aussie thing and had a meat pie and tomato sauce from one guy and it was great (not as good as a Four 'n Twenty though...).  I also bought some great bread from one of the many bread and cake stalls.  The shops on Broadway Market were also great - I particularly liked Broadway Books (thanks for the tip Ben).  I will be returning to F. Cooke to have authentic East End pie and mash (no jellied eels) and blog about it - it's important to remember the heritage of this area as well as it's groovy current incarnation.  I must say as I wandered off, full of meat pie and top quality caffeine from Climpsons, swinging my bag of bread and books, I was really jealous of Rosie living round here - I would love to have Broadway Market in my neighbourhood.