More people search for Borough Market’s opening times than for anything else about it, and there is a reason: it is shut on Mondays, and that is not what anyone expects of the most famous food market in Britain.
Everything else about a visit follows from which day you pick.
Opening times
| Day | Hours | What it is like |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Closed | The trap. Some surrounding shops open, the market does not |
| Tuesday to Friday | 10am to 5pm | The right answer. Full market, room to move |
| Saturday | 9am to 5pm | Opens an hour earlier and is far the busiest |
| Sunday | 10am to 4pm | Shortest day, closes an hour earlier than the rest |
Saturday is the only day that opens at nine, and that hour is the best one of the week: the full market is trading and the crowd has not arrived. By eleven on a Saturday the lanes are shoulder to shoulder.
Sunday closes at four, an hour before every other trading day, which catches people who have drifted over after a late lunch.
December is the exception, and it is a big one. The market publishes its own festive calendar, and from Monday 30 November it trades seven days a week: Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday 10am to 4pm. Within that it opens to 6pm on Wednesday 23 December, runs 8am to 3pm on Christmas Eve, shuts on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Sunday 27 December, runs 10am to 3pm on 31 December, shuts on New Year’s Day, and returns to normal on Saturday 2 January. Bank holidays vary too, so check the calendar rather than this page for a December visit.
Borough Market
- Address
- 8 Southwark Street, SE1 1TL
- Nearest
- London Bridge, immediately adjacent, on the Jubilee and Northern lines and National Rail
- Hours
- Closed Monday. Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm. Saturday 9am to 5pm. Sunday 10am to 4pm
- Price
- Free to enter
- Standing
- Around 1,000 years of history, by the market's own reckoning
How to get in
Free and unticketed, and there is no main entrance to find: the market runs under and around the railway viaduct with a dozen ways in. Come out of London Bridge station towards Borough High Street and you will be in it within two minutes. It is three areas rather than one: Three Crown Square for the larger producers, Green Market for specialist produce and Borough Market Kitchen for the street food.
Which day to go
A weekday, if the food is the point. Tuesday to Friday is the full market with space to stand still, talk to a trader and actually buy something to take home. This is what the market is for, and it is how the people who live here use it.
Saturday at nine, if the weekend is all you have. The extra hour is the whole difference. Arrive at ten and you will queue for everything; arrive at nine and you will not.
Not Sunday, if you can avoid it. It is the shortest day, some traders do not come, and it closes at four.
Never Monday, except in December. The surrounding streets have shops and restaurants that open, so people arrive, find the market itself shuttered and conclude it was overrated. It was shut. The one stretch when a Monday works is from 30 November to the end of the year.
What to eat, and the Borough Market food worth queueing for
The market splits into two things that visitors frequently confuse. There are traders selling ingredients to take home, which is cheese, bread, fish, meat, produce and a very serious spice and preserve trade. And there are stalls cooking food to eat standing up, which is what most first visits turn into. The market’s own division is geographical and worth using: Three Crown Square holds the larger producers and merchants, Green Market the specialist produce, and Borough Market Kitchen the street food.
Follow the queue rather than the sign. The lines at Borough are reliable: on any given day the stalls with twenty people waiting are worth the twenty minutes and the ones with nobody are not, and this is more useful than any list because the traders change.
Buy the ingredients, not just the lunch. The cheese and bread here are as good as anything in London and cost less than the equivalent in a shop in Mayfair. If you are staying somewhere with a kitchen, this is the best food shopping in the city.
December is when it earns its reputation. This is where Londoners buy the cheese, the ham and the bird, and the market is at its best and its most crowded in the fortnight before Christmas.
Getting there, and what is next door
London Bridge station is the market, effectively: the two are adjacent, and the station is on the Jubilee line, the Northern line and National Rail. There is no walk to speak of.
That makes it easy to pair. Christmas by the River is a ten minute walk east along the river, the George Inn on Borough High Street is the last galleried coaching inn in London and is two minutes away, and Southwark Cathedral is next to the market itself.
Everything here was taken from Borough Market’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Hours change at bank holidays and over Christmas. Confirm before you travel, particularly on a Monday.
Cheap eats in London starts here, because Padella’s original site is in the market and its cheapest plate is £9.50 on a menu dated to the day.
Where to go next
The Borough guide covers the neighbourhood around the market, which keeps entirely different hours: the stalls stop at five and close on Monday, while the restaurants run to half eleven and the bar at the top of the Shard to one.
Free things to do in London covers the rest of what costs nothing, and the Christmas markets cover why the ordinary London markets beat the seasonal ones.
The best restaurants in London covers where to sit down instead, and the pubs cover Borough High Street, which is two minutes away and holds the oldest galleried inn in the city.
Spitalfields Market is the east London comparison and a more confusing visit: the Victorian hall and the estate around it run separate websites with hours that disagree, and on a Saturday the restaurants stop at four. Camden and Portobello complete the set, and they are opposites: Camden opens every day but Christmas Day, Portobello is really a Friday and Saturday market.
London’s food markets places this one against the covered halls at Seven Dials and Camden, and against Broadway Market, which trades weekends only.
Monmouth Coffee is two minutes away on Park Street and shuts on Sundays like its other two shops, which is covered in the coffee guide.
Questions we get asked
What time does Borough Market close?
5pm from Tuesday to Saturday, and 4pm on Sunday. Sunday is the short day and the one that catches people out. The market is closed all day on Monday for most of the year, though from 30 November to the end of December it trades seven days. Hours change at bank holidays and over Christmas, when the market publishes its own calendar.
What time does Borough Market open?
10am from Tuesday to Friday and on Sunday, and 9am on Saturday. That Saturday hour is the single best hour of the week to be there: the full market is trading and the crowd has not yet arrived. By eleven on a Saturday it is shoulder to shoulder.
Is Borough Market open on Mondays?
No. It is closed all day Monday, which is the most common way a visit goes wrong, because the surrounding streets have shops and restaurants that do open. The exception is a bank holiday Monday, when the market sometimes trades: it published 10am to 5pm for the August bank holiday, so check the calendar rather than assuming either way.
Is Borough Market open on Sundays?
Yes, 10am to 4pm. It is the shortest trading day of the week, closing an hour earlier than Tuesday to Saturday, and some traders do not attend. If you have a choice, a weekday is a better market and a Saturday morning is a livelier one.
Where is Borough Market?
8 Southwark Street, SE1 1TL, on the south bank of the Thames immediately next to London Bridge station, which is on the Jubilee line, the Northern line and National Rail. The market runs under and around the railway viaduct and has a dozen ways in rather than one main entrance, so there is nothing to find: leave the station towards Borough High Street and you are in it.
How do you get to Borough Market?
London Bridge station, which is adjacent to it. The Jubilee and Northern lines both stop there, as do National Rail services from London Bridge's mainline platforms. There is effectively no walk. Driving is a poor idea: this is central London, the market has no parking and the surrounding streets are narrow and busy.
What should you eat at Borough Market?
Follow the queue rather than a list, because the traders change and the lines here are a reliable signal: a stall with twenty people waiting is worth the wait and one with nobody is not. Beyond the cooked food, the cheese, bread, fish and produce are as good as anything in London and cheaper than the equivalent in a Mayfair shop, so buy ingredients rather than only lunch.
Is Borough Market free?
Yes, it is free to enter and unticketed, and there is no main gate. You pay only for what you buy. It is one of the better free things to do in central London on a weekday, when you can actually move through it.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 70 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
