Kernel of the matter

For anyone who still doesn't know London's best kept secret, rapidly becoming fastest publicised, is the Maltby Street market in SE1, based around the railway arches leading out of London Bridge on a Saturday morning and lunchtime. Confusingly little of it is on Maltby Street itself but mostly along Ropewalk to the south of the arches and Druid Street on the other side.
The whole busy business, with its London Dry Gin cocktails, delicious Norwegian smoked salmon, Jewish kosher chicken soup and salt beef, North African spices, Spanish iberico ham, sprang to life originally because of an Irishman's London brewery.
Kernel, the microbrewery run by Evin O'Riordan was at the heart of the market until early last year when - due to the need for him to expand his hugely successful business - it was forced to move to larger premises some 400 metres further along the railway line. Now, however, it serves as Maltby Street II, with cheese and salami makers alongside and thebutcherltd.com run by Nathan Mills next door. On a Saturday morning - up until 3.00pm - the Kernel is scene of an impromptu beer hall, with trestle tables and planks on barrels, where you can try Evin's distinctive brews in bottle or on draft, and pick up some goodies to nibble from the stalls around. It's one of those rare distinctive little London treats that you have to be in the know to enjoy. Now you are. From the main market at Ropewalk, it's a disconcerting but short stroll along the south side of the tracks past plumber's merchants and self-storage facilities until you come to the junction of Spa Road and Rouel Road, where a little hole-in-the-wall doorless doorway leads into the little yard where Evin and co dispense their magic. Go during the week and it's a shuttered industrial estate, go on a Saturday morning, and it's Shangri La.