West End Market

West End Market have just recently set up an arts, vintage and antique fair every Friday 11−4pm. There were around 8 individual tables selling hand made sweetie jewellery, hand knitted bags, purses etc, second hand sterling silver jewellery, cup cakes, glass, tea sets and collectables and my fave stall Rare and Flair is back selling a huge selection of vintage brooch’s clip on earrings etc, 2 items for £5 or 5 items for £10. Gave the market a buzz. Was told there will be different stalls each week. So get down and have a look. There is a large café in the market that sells great coffee and the chicken pasta was yum yum.

The West End Market on Dumbarton Road is about as good on the inside as it is on the outside — i.e. not particularly attractive. It’s filled with a selection of shops/​market stalls, of various sizes and levels of permanency. Actually, that’s a pretty good way to describe this place — impermanent. From the state of the place, you half expect the whole place to get up and run like street sellers when the Police come within about 300 yards. The stuff for sale in there might not seem quite so tatty if the stall names weren’t written on pieces of cardboard.
Now, like all these places, there are a couple of gems. There’s a really nice vintage and jewellery stall in there named Rare & Flair, there’s a pet stall, a light fittings store and a bargain books stall. However, there’s also a slightly nasty café (which does boast free wifi), dodgy furniture stalls and the standard mobile phone unlocking places. One thing that did catch my eye is the fact that there is a psychic fortune telling stall in there — although I didn’t get close enough to it to find out much about it…
Overall, this place is a bit of a dump. I’d probably go in again if I was passing — but more out of boredom than because I actually wanted to buy anything.

You know when you walk past something and don’t really clock it, you know, you don’t really see what it is, you just take it for granted that somethings there but you ain’t sure what it is? Well, this wasn’t the case for me with this place.
reborn like a really cheap and nasty pigeon (you know, the ones you see in Central Station with the club feet and missing wings) from the ashes of the recently departed Woolworth’s, the West End market is a mish mash of pish and trash. From cheap and nastily scented soaps, mobile phone stuff, DVDs and Cd’s (101 Thursday night background music elevator classics anyone??), to posters, tacky calenders and other displays of what and not, this place has it all.
Maybe a good joint to stock up on x mass decorations and other seasonal throwaway stuff, but nothing of real substance, a pity really when you consider its location and size, however given the decent crowd in there on a Tuesday afternoon, then they must be doing something right.

I was drawn in here by the promise of so many many news shops! I wasn’t disappointed on that respect. I wa disappointed on the quality of the shops; for bits of tat, and the occasional useful hardward stall, this is where you need to come. But mostly bits of tat. I’m talking micheal jackson rhinestoned gloves and keyrings that say ‘Mummy’ on them.
For halloween costumes and the time your fridge light bulb went on the blink it’d be perfect. The rest of the year, not so.