The Best Markets in London for a Gentler Browse
There’s something grounding about a good market. The rhythm of browsing, the smell of fresh coffee, the quiet joy of finding something unexpected.
London has plenty of markets, but not all of them invite you to slow down. These 17 do.
Whether it’s for produce, vintage finds, or just a reason to step outside your routine, here’s where to go when you want to wander without rushing.
This market is an East London Sunday morning classic.
You’ll have to be up early to get the best out of it though; the market opens at 8 am and the streets get busy early.
By midday, the market heaves with people and the freshest flowers and shiniest house plants begin to clear out.
You’ll also find herbs, bulbs, and shrubs for sale, all at reasonable prices.
As the day goes on the greenest and freshest foliage for sale begins to dwindle, but by closing time at 3 pm there are always bargains to be had.
Columbia Road is also well known for the independent boutiques, cafes, restaurants, antique dealers, galleries and vintage stalls.
Find somewhere for lunch or grab a sandwich and head to Ravenscroft Park for an alfresco feast.
Once home to a bustling fruit and vegetable market, Covent Garden Market is now a collection of three distinct markets that operate throughout the week.
The Apple Market is full of handmade crafts and goods from Tuesday to Sunday; think handmade jewelry, art prints, and watercolors.
On Mondays, the market hosts antique and collectable stalls.
The East Colonnade Market is a more fragrant affair, home to stalls selling artisanal soaps, delicious sweet things to eat and bespoke jewelry.
The Jubilee Market is open every day.
On Mondays from 5 am to 5 pm the market offers a range of antiques and collectables from traders representing many styles and eras.
These include Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, art deco, art nouveau, fine art and jewelry, silver, and antiquarian and used books.
There’s a general market from Tuesday to Friday, from 10:30 am to 7 pm.
This offers a wide range of goods from plants to greeting cards, garden equipment to beauty items.
Weekends are a particularly busy time for the area, and the Market hosts arts and crafts.
Surrounding Covent Garden Market you’ll find established shops and restaurants for a refuel.
Try nearby Chinatown for an authentic dim sum experience.
Foodies will love this quirky, fully-accessible weekend market in the cool South London suburb of Bermondsey.
It is set in and around railway arches and is a short walk from London Bridge tube station.
Over 30 street vendors vetted for quality and innovative offerings sell excellent food and drinks.
You’ll find gooey brownies, berry-laden waffles, craft beer, posh cheese toasties, burgers, cocktails, scotch eggs and great coffee.
Along with street stalls, some of the eating establishments have become more permanent and have set up home right under the arches.
This is the place to seek out pop-ups, international dishes and new gastronomic ideas before they become mainstream.
On Saturdays, the market is open 10 am to 5 pm, and on Sundays from 11 am until 4 pm.
Not necessarily the original but certainly one of the best London markets.
Remember the ‘90s Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant rom-com Notting Hill?
That movie and pivotal scenes were set in Portobello Road Market, which is still just as full of antiques, street food, fruit and vegetables, household items, collectables and crafts.
It considers itself the world’s largest antique market with over 1000 dealers.
The market goes all week long, but it comes to life (and gets the big crowds) on Saturdays.
On this day, hundreds of antique and specialist shops and stalls are open and the rummaging can begin.
The market is divided into different sections and stretches all the way up to Golborne Road where you’ll find the best Portuguese tarts outside of Lisbon.
Check out the traditional café and deli Lisboa for pasteis de natas and other yolk-yellow sweet treats.
Under the Westway on Saturdays and Sundays, you’ll find Acklam Village, a pop-up international street food market with live music and a bar under cover.
Monday to Wednesday is officially for fruit and vegetables, Thursday is for new goods, Friday is famous for vintage fashion.
All through the week there are many well-known and loved Notting Hill restaurants and bars dotted throughout the area to explore.
Street performers are often found plying their trade on Saturdays, and there are some children’s playgrounds nearby for picnicking while the kids play.
A proper old East End market, Brick Lane Market is a foodie and vintage fashion destination with various distinct parts.
The area has a rich history and Brick Lane itself is known for its bustling, energetic curry house scene.
There are two original Jewish bagel shops worth queuing up at – the salt beef bagels are exceptional.
Open air street food from brownies to bao buns can be found at a number of crowded and excellent street food stalls along Brick Lane on Sundays.
Upmarket is a famous indoor food hall, offering 40 international street food traders from Ethiopian injera bread to Nepalese dumplings, open Saturdays and Sundays.
You’ll also find independent vintage specialists and jewelers, illustrators and vintage stallholders here.
The Old Truman Brewery Market is located just off Brick Lane and is famous for vintage clothing and collectables.
It is open all week.
You’ll find anything from fur coats to vinyl records here.
There’s a bric-a-brac market in a fenced-off car parking area in Sclater Street where you will spot vintage Murano glassware, old toys, used books, clothes and tools.
Haggling is encouraged, so try your luck.
A market famed for being alternative, Camden Market is a collection of over 1000 independent shops, stalls, bars and cafes.
Once a little on the left-over-hippy side, the area has smartened up – but not so much as to have lost its charm.
This is the place for people-watching as well as catching live music and rummaging around independent music stores.
The market is located next to Regent’s Canal and is based around three locks.
It combines two former markets – Camden Stables Market (once a horse stable and hospital) and Camden Lock Market.
You’ll find all the usual market offerings such as vintage fashion, handcrafted gifts, jewelry, art and homewares.
Expect big crowds on weekends.
Buck Street Market is a kind of container village with alternative stores, excellent food stalls and fairtrade fashion.
Camden Lock Market has been running since the ‘70s and is now stocked with various crafts and international food stalls over a maze of indoor and outdoor stalls located around a three-storey building.
The Stables Market is made up of covered stalls and shops numbering around 700.
You’ll find your pick of fashion, vintage clothing, furniture, antiques and second-hand items here.
Open seven days a week from 10 am to 6 pm, including all bank holidays (except Christmas Day), the market is also open some evenings.
When does a market become a way of life?
Old Spitalfields Market has morphed from a rambling, messy but fun old East End market into an all-week-long community-minded place for shopping, eating and dancing.
The market began in the 13th century and the area is well-known as being a melting pot of cultures and peoples over time.
You’ll find a Huguenot church, Methodist chapel, Jewish synagogue and a Muslim mosque all within a short distance.
The Market has been part of a regeneration project which was completed in 2005.
Old Spitalfields Market now boasts two public spaces – Bishops Square and Crispin Place – a public art program, an events program, and a selection of restaurants and retailers.
Free events open to all throughout the year include Spitalfields Tea Dances, held to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The Spitalfields Arts Market is an ongoing event for up-and-coming creatives to showcase their work every month alongside more established artists.
The indoors Traders Market is where independent stallholders come together to sell unique handcrafted pieces, interiors, artworks and artisan street food.
There are more permanent restaurants and bars in the building and many of these are open in the evenings.
Outside the main building, there are gourmet street food trucks open Monday to Sunday.
Whether a street food stall or established restaurant, the food and drink options available are wide and adventurous.
From pasta to a matcha bar, duck burgers, donuts and bistros, there are many others in between.
Small but perfectly formed, Greenwich market is right in the centre of Greenwich and a perfect pitstop during a day trip to the birth of GMT.
Read all about Greenwich – and its market – in our comprehensive guide on the best things to do in Greenwich.
When Londoners think of the best food-on-the-go and food-for-the-pantry, they turn to Borough Market.
Open seven days a week and located right in the heart of London, this market is a pleasure to explore.
There are three distinct areas of the market:
Three Crown Square is where you’ll find larger producers and merchants, Green Market is for smaller specialist produce traders, and Borough Market Kitchen has street food traders.
Throughout the Market, there’s also a range of established restaurants, bars and shops, both independent and more well-known.
Borough Market has been in existence for 1000 years and is now run by a charitable trust for the benefit of the community.
It’s also where Bridget Jones’ from the film had her first flat (you might recall the blue soup?).
The Market has become known for championing sustainable food production, short supply chains and its community reach.
The street food stalls though are really what this place is all about.
Try the salt beef bagels, a freshly conjured up bao bun, a Bread Ahead Bakery classic jam donut, gelato, warm Ginger Pig sausage rolls or a slow-cooked hog roast baguette.
For the larder, try alpine or British cheeses, a pot of mushroom pate, freshly sliced charcuterie, wholesale fruit and vegetables, fresh pasta and natural wines.
For those who love the place, there’s a Borough Market Cookbook club, food tours through the market, bakery and butchery classes, and an online delivery service.
East London’s Broadway Market sees locals and curious visitors descend on this single street each Saturday.
It’s packed with a range of stalls selling everything from fully-loaded Vietnamese Banh Mi, to sweet delights from End of the Eclair and seafood concoctions from Shrimpy.
While you are dipping into the varied flavours of the market, take time to explore its vintage fashion scene, blooming flower stalls and hip record stores.
Brighton Open Market, Brighton
If you don’t mind venturing an hour outside of London, try Brighton Open Market.
Standing in the city for more than 50 years, there are more than 45 market stalls selling items from local producers.
From blossoming florals to organic chocolates and vintage finds, you can spend your time exploring the vast array of eclectic items on offer.
Open daily, the market is covered so the weather doesn’t have to hamper your fun.
You’ll find Brighton Open Market in the city’s bustling London Road area.
Sunday Markets
Lazy Sundays in London are for farmers‘ markets; you’ll find them popping up all over the city 51 weeks of the year.
London Farmers Markets is the organization that runs them, so look out for locations, days and times via their website.
Currently, there are 200 farmers and food producers selling at over 20 weekly farmers’ markets in the capital.
The idea behind the collective is manifold; to increase farm incomes, find more sites, encourage sustainable food production, and provide high quality local and seasonal foods to urban communities.
The Marylebone Farmers Market runs every Sunday, rain or shine, from 10 am until 2 pm.
One of the flagship farmer’s markets, it is perfectly placed next to a giant children’s playground next door.
Fresh fruit is seasonal, there are oysters and cheeses to take home or you can order a mushroom sandwich to eat as you amble around.
The Blackheath Farmers Market sells raw milk, sourdough and fresh fish.
Queens Park Farmers’ Market is a big drawcard, full of families, dogs and kids.
You’ll be able to bring home honey, pies, cakes, plants, flowers and seasonal day boat fish and shellfish.
Walthamstow’s market fills the top of the high street on Sundays with biodynamic eggs, fresh game in season, locally made fresh pasta and local honey.
Some of our other favourites include:
Alfies Antiques – antique jewellery, vintage fashion and accessories, art, collectables, interior furnishings, textiles, ceramics, glass and silverware.
Brixton Market – the area has been overly gentrified but the market’s good for food and drink from all over the world.
Leather Lane – only open during the week as it mainly caters to workers on their lunch breaks, but the food makes it worth a visit.
Seven Dials Market – for delicious food
Southbank Centre Food Market – open on the weekends only and worth a visit for the delicious food stalls.
Victoria Park Market – head east on Sundays only for wonderful food.
Chiswick Flower Market – for gorgeous blooms.
Chatsworth Road Market – for food and arts and crafts.
Primrose Hill Food Market – grab some lunch then sit in the park for wonderful views of London.
Duke of York Square Food Market – head to Chelsea for posh (and often expensive) food.
