The 5 Best Markets in London (and When to Go)

Under the railway arches by London Bridge, Borough is the food market everyone names first, which means it is crowded and not cheap. It is still worth it. The traders are proper specialists: cheesemongers, fishmongers, bakers, a stall that does nothing but mushrooms. Come hungry, eat standing up, and treat it as lunch rather than a shop.

Go on a weekday morning if you want to actually talk to a trader. Saturdays are shoulder-to-shoulder. Opening days vary by section of the market, so check before you make the trip.

One street in Bethnal Green, one morning a week, and the whole thing is over by mid-afternoon. Traders shout prices at each other across the road and drop them as closing approaches, so the last hour is when the bargains happen. The shops behind the stalls sell ceramics, prints and coffee, and they are half the reason to come.

There is no point going any other day. On a Sunday it is packed by ten; get there before nine and you will have room to move.

Portobello runs for well over a mile through Notting Hill and changes character as you walk. The antiques dealers are at the southern end and trade properly on Saturdays only. Further north it becomes fruit and veg, then vintage clothing under the Westway flyover.

Saturday is the full experience and also the most crowded street in west London. A weekday visit gives you the pastel houses and the food stalls without the crush, but the antiques arcades will be quiet or closed.

Brixton is three things at once: Electric Avenue outside, and the covered arcades of Brixton Village and Market Row behind it. The arcades are full of small restaurants, Caribbean, West African, Colombian, Portuguese, squeezed between fabric shops and butchers. Prices are lower than anywhere central and the food is better.

It is busiest in the evening, when the restaurants fill up. The street market outside runs during the day and is the place for produce rather than souvenirs.

Nobody pretends Camden is undiscovered. It is a warren of stalls around the canal lock and the old horse stables, selling street food from about thirty countries and a great deal of merchandise. Go with that expectation and it is a good afternoon: the stables section has genuine character, and the canal towpath walk to Little Venice starts right there.

Open every day, worst on Saturday afternoon, best on a weekday when you can move.

Maltby Street in Bermondsey is a short row of arches doing serious food to a fraction of Borough's crowd, on weekends. Old Spitalfields is covered, which matters in February, and rotates between antiques, vintage and design depending on the day.

Borough and Maltby Street are twenty minutes apart on foot. Columbia Road and Old Spitalfields make an easy Sunday pair. Portobello, Camden and Brixton are each their own trip, do not try to string all five into one day, because the travelling will be the only thing you remember.

Markets are best when you are wandering with a reason to look closely. A city game gives you one: you set off in small teams with your phone, solve puzzles tied to real places, and end up noticing the details you normally walk past. There is no fixed start time and no guide, so you begin when you want and stop for coffee whenever you feel like it.

It works for a group of friends, a family afternoon, or a company outing or larger group. The whole thing is explained step by step on the how it works page.

The best market day is the one where you had no shopping list. If you want to explore London with a bit more structure, see all the cities we cover, read about the routes through the capital in Quests in London, or just get in touch with your questions.