It has to be the Bratwurst. It was always going to be the Bratwurst, but I felt I ought to have a look at the other stalls anyway. I knew I’d come back to the German Deli: Sausages, Mustards, Pickles…

Emerging from under London Bridge Station’s canopy, I’m staggered by the massive, sleek glass pyramid that is The Shard: a gigantic (inverted) V-sign of a gesture to London’s lesser buildings. Still topped by a crane, but untopped itself, it will house the rich – ‘exclusive apartments’; companies – ‘inspirational’; visitors – ‘5-Star Shangri-La: opulent and exclusive’. Or it may stand, like Centre Point, empty. Cynical, me?

Down the steps by Southwark Cathedral, into the wonderful food smells and the human crush of Borough Market. Under the girders are the stalls, doing a brisk trade: Bermondsey Bangers with their beef, venison, and ‘Ultra Beef’ burgers; the oyster stall; a Middle Eastern stall heaped with aubergine and pumpkin kibeh, spinach parcels, halloumi cheese; a long trestle table piled with loaves of all kinds. There’s a huge stack of whirled meringues next to a cascade of those lovely Portuguese custard tarts – people are snapping away and buying food at the same time – it’s a total feast for the senses. This is not your average market – it’s a very designed market, with cool graphics on the walls and superstructure: visitors’ fulsome quotes, apparently – in their corporate typestyle. It’s been there since 1014 (AD that is), they reckon, though I imagine the branding was more homespun then.

You do, actually, want to eat all the food on display, and take away anything in a bottle, jar, or can. In the end – I knew it – I go back to get the Bratwurst. And sauerkraut.