Leicester Market

The food hall looks like some attempt has been made to raise the aspirations of this sorry looking place. If you approach from this side you'll get excited expecting lots of choice of fresh produce with perhaps the odd wine bar and restaurant tucked away in its midst. However, despite a good design you quickly realise that it's just for the meat, fish and deli's. There's a couple of butchers, two deli's and at least one fish monger. Wares were presented well. The Sherwin's deli had a particularly good selection of (mostly British) cheese. However, when you walk out into the covered market your heart sinks. There's a lot of tat shops catering for the worst habits of humans - I'm thinking particularly of the store for cannabis users (don't pretend it's for anything else). The vegetables and fruits are laid out in bowls that seem to mostly cost £1. In fairness on examination most of this fruit and veg looked reasonable quality and I did buy 8 granny Smith's for a pound! However, the general feel was one of neglect and left you wanting to get out as quickly as possible rather than take your time choosing veg for your meals. This is sadly like so many British markets. In a very sad way and seemingly going nowhere apart from extinction. The council needs to look at some continental examples to get some inspiration of what a destination market should be.