There’s a fabulous market in Richmond on Sunday mornings selling artisan foods and crafts. It’s been there for some time but it’s taken me a while to stop by and take a proper look, and I’m so glad I have. There are some wonderful stalls. Duck Pond Market is situated right by Richmond bridge in Heron Square. You can enter from the start of the bridge in Bridge Street or via an archway from Hill Street (as in above photo) or the Riverside.

It’s certainly grown a lot as at first there were only a few stalls but now it’s packed full of a large variety of sellers: cheeses and breads; jewellery and paintings; home-made cards; fresh coffee and crepes.

For me it’s part of my route walking home from my usual morning coffee at Taylor St Baristas back to Twickenham and such is the familiarity that I have to confess I didn’t take much notice of the stalls for a while, and keep up with how the market was growing. But my diagonal crossing of the market to come out onto Richmond bridge takes me right past a stall that holds special appeal: Une Normande a Londres.

Here, a few weeks ago, I spotted one of my favourite cheeses – Neufchatel – that is quite hard to source here but was the family’s favourite cheese when we stayed in Normandy at Manoir de Laize two years ago. I now make a special trip to buy some each week. Yesterday I left it out of the fridge all day so it was at perfect temperature when Jonathan and Lyndsey came to supper and we all agreed it was wonderful: just like being in France.

The stall has many other gorgeous cheeses like Livarot and Camembert, and a wide range of goats’ cheese. They sell saucissons too with lots of different flavourings; jars of honey and pates. It really is brilliant.

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far with the temperature rising to about 20C and the market was packed with people buying things to eat or coffee to drink. This is Richmond’s street food scene! There were some wonderful looking quiches at one stall.

At another stall someone was making French-style crepes to order with either sweet or savoury fillings: a perfect snack lunch.

There were long queues everywhere. Apart from the sunny weather, rugby had brought the crowds to Richmond on their way to the England v. Wales match at the Twickenham stadium in the afternoon. With 82,000 spectators expected at the match, neither Richmond nor Twickenham were good destinations for anyone wanting a quiet Sunday!! But for those wanting to eat well, there was a lot on offer. One stall had a huge pan of paella; another was filling pittas with falafel, humous and salad.

There were stalls selling cheese, bread, biscuits, cake and chocolates.

There were also great stalls for anyone who likes to buy artisan crafts: homemade soaps and candles; jewellery, cards and paintings.

There were flower and plant stalls too.

And if this wasn’t excitement enough, you could take your purchases through an archway and down some steps to Richmond Riverside and enjoy the wonderful view.

If you’d bought some food for lunch, then you could find a place in the sun to relax and enjoy it. I’m lucky to live here and so it’s part of my local scene, but the market is so great, Richmond such a beautiful destination, that it’s definitely worth a trip from much further afield on a Sunday morning to enjoy all that’s on offer here.