Berwick Street Market - Soho W1

Over the 12 years I have lived in London I have watched the gradual gentrification of the southern end of Berwick Street.  [As a contrast, the northern end of Berwick Street, which used to be heaving with record shops makes me sad - the decline of the music industry can be seen right here in these few Soho blocks.  Anyway, we will leave that part of the street (immortalised by Oasis on the cover of "What's the Story Morning Glory") and focus on the narrower, market-end.]  Given its proximity to "Porn Alley" (otherwise known as Walker's Court) this part of Berwick Street always had that same whiff (literally sometimes) of seediness, with several dodgy looking doorways with hand-written signs or neon lights in upper windows promising a "Model".  There was the herbal-high/smoke shop and the vegetarian food shop (Beatroot) which I would patronise on my health-kick days, plus there were fabric shops and a pretty dodgy pub.  All in all Berwick Street felt a bit sketchy and I looked on it more as a shortcut through to further Soho adventures (back in those days it was probably too many vodka tonics and the rest at the Alphabet Bar...).  Then things started changing - the dodgy pub, The Endurance, got a face-lift, the pioneering and incredibly welcome Flat White opened in 2005 plus the street market, which although it had great heritage (a market having been in situ since the 18th century) had always been a bit rag-tag, started to get a bit more interesting.  Over the last couple of years the dodgy, porny-bit of the street has seen the construction of new retail space (ousting the "models") with these new shops housing Foxcroft & Ginger (whose ham and cheese French toast with maple syrup is one of my favourite heart-threatening breakfasts) and (I noticed yesterday) the super cool graphic-novel shop Gosh. On top of the improvement in the retail/food/drinking establishments lining the street, I love the fact that there is an outdoor street market bang in the middle of Soho that operates daily and has some really great stalls on top of the fruit and veg staples.  My personal favourite (pictured) is the bread/cake stall (surprise, surprise) - usually situated just near Flat White, these guys sell amazing bread, including a fruit loaf that has whole dried apricots studded through it and is basically the perfect weekend breakfast fare.  They also do great filled bagels and most importantly amazing cakes - this is not the place to visit if you on the Atkins diet.  I heard a rumour that the wonderful Gelupo has set up a stall in the Berwick St market - how cool is that?  Of course if you are in the mood for posh (and delicious) dim sum you can visit perennial favourite Yauatcha, another sign of the improving fortunes of Berwick Street when it opened in 2004.  So if you haven't visited Berwick Street or perhaps you haven't been there for a while, make sure you check it out - in my book this is one of the coolest streets in Soho.