Snow causes transport delays and a bad trading weekend in the East End

EAST Enders are experiencing more transport delays as London faces another day disrupted by the snow.

The Central Line has severe delays while the District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines have been reporting minor disruptions all morning.

Tower Hamlets’ schools are set to break up on Wednesday but one school is closed today due to the weather.

This weekend was set to be one of the busiest shopping periods of the year but market stalls and high streets attracted less business than usual as residents chose not to brave the cold.

Old Spitalfields Market - one of Tower Hamlets’ main shopping attractions – lost about 15 stalls from its usual line-up but still had 160 stands running over the weekend.

Lee Graham, assistant market manager, said: “It was a very slow morning but it did get busier towards the afternoon. It’s normally the busiest weekend of the year.

“Trade was down on last year but the stall holders pulled together to get up and running.”

Children at The Royal London hospital in Whitechapel Road were due to get a visit from girlband Fe-nix this morning but the group could not make the journey due to train cancellations.

Meanwhile, council teams were busy clearing snow in key spots over the weekend.

A spokesman said: “Staff at Tower Hamlets are well prepared to deal with icy conditions and have been hard at work over the weekend gritting major roads across the borough to keep transport moving.”

While many residents chose to enjoy the warmth of their homes, there were still those who ventured out to enjoy the stunning wintery scenes.

Children played in the snow in Victoria Park and the odd runner even faced the chill and slippery pavements.

To see more pictures of East London covered in the white stuff click on the gallery link in the top right corner.