Welcome spring in London at the Columbia Road Flower Market

It's official. Spring has come to the UK with the arrival of the vernal equinox. And what perfect way to welcome the new season with a festival of flora and fauna, and blooms and bushes at London's most famous flower market.

Columbia Road now (Wikipedia Commons) and before (ColumbiaRoad.info).

Every Sunday, the road near Brick Lane and Spitalfields becomes a veritable highway of flowers and foliage transforming Columbia Road into the Columbia Road Flower Market.

It began as a Saturday trading market, and was only expanded to Sunday to service the growing Jewish community. Soon, the flowers took over and people began to flock the area every Sunday.

The road itself, meanwhile, was named after heiress and philanthropist Angela Burdett Coutts, who built the original Columbia Market (which is now a nursery), and also established a Bishopric (a district under the control of a bishop) in British Columbia, Canada.

The Victorian shops which line the street were actually built in the 1960s to provide goods and services to the nearby Jesus Hospital Estate.The road plays host to more than 60 independent shops including cafes, pubs, vintage clothing stores, antique furniture and accessory shops, and intimate art galleries.

Normally filled with locals and tourists alike, the market hasn't always been popular. In the 1970s the area went into a decline and was due to be demolished. However, locals insisted on saving the market and from then on, it grew to become the place to find the brightest blooms in London--even when it wasn't spring.

There are hundreds of flower and plant varieties to choose from to give anyone's home a dash of color. (Instagram: @justinecdk)