London's Food Markets This Winter: Where to Eat Right Now
London's winter markets are opening one by one through November, and the city's year-round food markets are at their best in the cold. Here's what is actually on, with real dates and opening hours, plus how to string them together on foot without ruining your appetite.
There is a particular kind of pleasure in eating outdoors in London in November. The light goes at four, your hands are cold, and a paper cone of something hot costs less than a cinema ticket. The city knows this, which is why its winter markets start opening in the first week of the month and keep going until the first days of January.
If you are visiting London in the next few weeks, here is what is genuinely on — and how to see several of them in an afternoon's walking.
The winter markets, in the order they open
They do not all arrive at once, which is useful if your trip falls early in the month.
- Southbank Centre Winter Market — already open, running 2 November to 3 January along Queen's Walk beneath Hungerford Bridge. This is the most food-led of the lot: raclette, hot sandwiches, mulled wine, sweet things. Stalls 11am–10pm, bars until 11pm. Free to enter.
- Trafalgar Square Christmas Market — 6 November to 3 January, 10am–10pm daily, closed Christmas Day. Wooden stalls around the Norwegian spruce, with raclette, crêpes and waffles. Free. The tree lighting is Thursday 3 December, 5pm–6.30pm.
- Winter by the River — 10 November to 3 January at London Bridge City, daily 11am–10pm. Free entry, and the strongest street food line-up of any of the festive markets: hog roast in Yorkshire puddings, bratwurst, Nepalese momos, Lebanese plates, tacos, and a stall that serves pasta out of a wheel of cheese. Curling is extra.
- Covent Garden Christmas Market — 12 November to 2 January, Monday to Saturday 10am–9pm, Sunday noon–5pm. More crafts than food, but the piazza and its 55-foot tree are worth the detour.
- Hyde Park Winter Wonderland — 19 November to 3 January. The only one that charges to get in, but off-peak slots (weekday sessions, especially in November) start at £1.
- King's Cross Winter Market — the newcomer, on Granary Square from 26 November to 3 January, Sunday to Thursday 11am–10pm and Friday to Saturday until 11pm. Independent makers, seasonal food and drink, and a roller rink.
Entry to all of these is free except Winter Wonderland.
The markets that are there every week anyway
The festive markets get the attention, but London's standing food markets are arguably better in winter — less queueing, and the indoor ones are warm.
Borough Market (SE1) is the obvious one and still deserves it. Closed Mondays; Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 9am–5pm, Sunday 10am–4pm. Go on a weekday morning if you want to actually taste things rather than shuffle past them.
Maltby Street Market, ten minutes' walk from Borough under the Bermondsey railway arches, is smaller and scrappier and many Londoners prefer it. Friday 5.30pm–9pm, Saturday 10am–5pm, Sunday 11am–4pm.
Seven Dials Market in Covent Garden is indoors over two floors — noon–10pm Monday and Tuesday, 11am–11pm Wednesday to Saturday, 11am–9pm Sunday. Handy when the weather turns, and five minutes from the Covent Garden market.
Broadway Market in Hackney is a weekend affair — Saturday 9am–5pm, Sunday 10am–6pm — and gives you a genuine east London Saturday rather than a tourist one.
Brixton Village runs Monday 8am–6pm and Tuesday to Sunday 8am until midnight, which makes it one of the few places to eat properly late. Mercato Metropolitano at Elephant & Castle is open daily from noon (11am at weekends) and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
If you want to plan around one event
The Waitrose Food & Drink Festival is at Tobacco Dock from 20 to 22 November. It is ticketed and not cheap — from £75 — but a ticket covers a four-hour session of unlimited sampling, chef demos and masterclasses. Worth it if food is the reason you came; skip it if you would rather spend the same money eating across three markets.
How to do this on foot
The markets cluster, which is the useful thing to know.
South of the river, Borough Market, Maltby Street and Winter by the River sit within about twenty-five minutes' walking of each other, with the Thames path in between. That is a very good afternoon: a late lunch at Borough, a wander through Bermondsey, then mulled wine by Tower Bridge as it gets dark.
North of the river, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and Seven Dials Market are all within ten minutes of one another, so you can eat indoors and browse outdoors depending on the rain.
A few practical notes. Most stalls take card, but a little cash is still worth having at the smaller markets. Weekday afternoons are dramatically calmer than weekends at every single one of these. And dress for standing still rather than walking — you will be doing more of the former than you expect.
We run walking tours of London, so we spend a lot of the winter out in exactly this weather, and the honest advice is to pick one cluster rather than three. Two markets eaten properly beats six seen briefly. Festive opening hours shift around Christmas and New Year at most of these, so check before you travel if your dates fall in late December.