Alternative London: Camden, Shoreditch and Brixton

Camden begins at the Camden Town Tube station, on the Northern Line, and unfolds along Camden High Street among tattoo shops, army boots and impossible facades. The heart is at Camden Market and Camden Lock, beside Regent's Canal, where the old horse stables of the Stables Market are today aisles of vintage clothing, vinyl and food from half the world. Look for the statue of Amy Winehouse in the Stables Market, one of the most photographed corners of the neighborhood.

Camden grew great on music. The Roundhouse, an old train shed reconverted into a concert hall, and the Electric Ballroom have seen half the pantheon of rock and punk pass through. If you have time to spare, leave the bustle and walk along Regent's Canal: in twenty minutes you reach Regent's Park and, following the water west, the quiet neighborhood of Little Venice.

East of the center, Shoreditch went from being a run-down industrial area to one of the city's creative hotspots. Its backbone is Brick Lane, famous for its Bengali curry restaurants and for the Beigel Bake, the bakery that serves salt beef bagels at any hour of the night. Around the Old Truman Brewery, an old brewery reconverted into markets and galleries, every wall is a canvas: here pieces by Banksy live alongside the huge crane bird that ROA painted on Hanbury Street.

Sunday is the best day for the neighborhood. In the morning, the Columbia Road Flower Market fills with stalls of flowers and pots amid the shouts of sellers, and a few minutes away the Old Spitalfields Market offers design, antiques and street food under its Victorian roof. In between, Redchurch Street and the Boxpark in Shoreditch, a market built from shipping containers, gather independent shops and street-food stalls.

In the south, at the end of the Victoria Line, Brixton is the neighborhood that best tells the story of London's Caribbean community, that of the Windrush generation who arrived in the forties and fifties. Its epicenter is Brixton Market, spread across the covered passages of Brixton Village and Market Row and the legendary Electric Avenue, the first shopping street in London to have electric lighting and the one Eddy Grant immortalized in his song. Among stalls of plantain, fresh fish and spices you eat Jamaican, Ethiopian or Colombian for little money.

Brixton is also the birthplace of David Bowie, who was born here in 1947: his mural on Tunstall Road, next to the Tube exit, has become a place of pilgrimage. A step away are Windrush Square, the historic Ritzy cinema and the O2 Academy Brixton, one of the most legendary concert venues in the city. For a bite or a drink, Pop Brixton brings together food trucks and small businesses in a space made, once again, from shipping containers.

Each of these neighborhoods eats in a different way. In Camden the international market stalls rule, ideal for a bite standing by the canal. In Shoreditch the safe bet is a curry on Brick Lane or a salt beef bagel at the Beigel Bake at any hour.

In Brixton do not leave without trying the Caribbean food: jerk chicken, goat curry or a freshly made Jamaican patty. A fact for pizza lovers: the first Franco Manca opened right here, inside Brixton Market, before becoming a chain across England.

The three are well connected by Tube, though at opposite ends of the city. Camden Town is to the north, on the Northern Line; Shoreditch is reached best via Shoreditch High Street on the Overground or from Liverpool Street; and Brixton is the last stop to the south of the Victoria Line. With an Oyster card or by paying with a contactless card straight at the gates you move around all of them without any fuss.

These neighborhoods make more sense if you have first seen the classic London of the center, because they explain where and why the city grew. A free tour of London on the first day gives you that context with a guide who sets the scene, and then Camden, Shoreditch or Brixton take on another meaning. At the end of the walk, you value the guide's work with a contribution of around 15 to 20 euros per person, adjusted to what you have got out of it.

The weekend is when these neighborhoods give their best, above all Sunday for the Shoreditch markets. Camden opens daily, but during the week it is much quieter. Many stalls close by mid-afternoon, so for markets it is better to go in the morning; the nightlife, on the other hand, gets going when they pull down the shutters.

Go with comfortable shoes, because there is a lot of walking and the market floors are uneven, and bring something warm even if the sun is out: the weather in London changes without warning. And do not try to squeeze the three neighborhoods into the same day, because they are far apart and each asks for its own hours. With half a day per neighborhood you take away an honest picture of each.