Camden Market is open every day of the year except one. Christmas Day is the only day it shuts, bank holidays included, which makes it the most reliable market in London and the answer whenever the day is not yours to choose.
That is worth stating plainly because the comparison people actually make is with Portobello, and Portobello is a different proposition entirely: effectively a Friday and Saturday market, closed on every bank holiday except Good Friday, with no Sunday street market for most of the year. Camden asks nothing of your diary. Portobello asks a lot.
What Camden does ask is that you know which part of it you are standing in, because the site runs under more than one name and more than one set of hours. Here is what it publishes.
The main market
Camden Market, Camden Lock Place
Seven days a week, all year, with only one date off.
Camden Market
- Address
- Camden Lock Place, London NW1 8AF
- Nearest
- Camden Town, five minutes. Camden Road overground, eight. Chalk Farm, ten
- Hours
- Monday to Sunday 10am to 7pm, including bank holidays. Closed only on Christmas Day. North Yard restaurants stay open every evening
- Booking
- No booking. Buses: 214 from King’s Cross, 24 from Victoria, 274 from the West End, 393 from east London
- Standing
- The best known market in London, in three quarters they name as Lock, Stables and Hawley Wharf, open seven days a week including every bank holiday, with an interactive trader map on its own site
How to get in
Be aware that the market’s own pages disagree by an hour. The visitor page gives the market as 10am to 7pm; the answer on their own opening hours question says most traders work 10am to 6pm. Treat six as the safe assumption and seven as the optimistic one, and note their caveat that individual traders set their own times. North Yard is the part that stays open in the evening, so that is where to head if you arrive late. There is an interactive map on their site that will give walking directions to a specific trader, which is more useful here than at any other London market because the site is large and the signage is not. On access, they are straight about it: Hawley Wharf is step free with lifts to every floor and a Changing Places toilet, while the listed buildings and cobbles of Stables and Lock are harder going.
The part with different hours
Hawley Wharf, Chalk Farm Road
The newer half of Camden, and the shops do not open when you would expect.
Hawley Wharf
- Address
- Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AA
- Nearest
- Camden Town, five minutes. Chalk Farm, eight
- Hours
- Food halls Monday to Sunday 11.30am to 11pm. Retail Monday to Wednesday midday to 6pm, Thursday 11am to 6pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 7pm, Sunday 11am to 6pm. Including bank holidays
- Booking
- No booking
- Standing
- The redeveloped wharf beside the main market, with food halls running late every night of the week
How to get in
The retail hours here are the trap. Monday to Wednesday the shops do not open until midday, and they shut at six, which gives a six hour trading day midweek. The food halls are the opposite: half eleven in the morning to eleven at night, seven days a week, which makes Hawley Wharf the late option in Camden and the reason to come back in the evening. If you are planning a weekday morning at Camden, do the main market first and come here after lunch.
Camden against Portobello
The question Google itself keeps asking, answered from what both markets publish.
Camden is open seven days a week, every day of the year except Christmas Day, bank holidays included. Portobello runs a full street market on Friday and Saturday only. Monday to Thursday it is fruit and veg, household goods and a few clothing stalls, and outside summer and December there is no Sunday street market at all.
Portobello closes on bank holidays. All of them except Good Friday, when it runs until 5pm. Camden opens on every one.
For antiques, Portobello wins and it is not close. The antiques arcades and the stalls on Westbourne Grove between Portobello Road and Kensington Park Road open on Saturdays only, which is also the one day Portobello runs a full street market. Camden has vintage and second hand rather than a dealer trade.
For a day you did not choose, Camden wins and that is not close either. If you have a Tuesday free, or a Sunday in February, or an Easter Monday, Camden is open and Portobello is not.
The Portobello guide has the full day by day schedule if that is the way you are leaning.
What to know before you go
Six or seven, not both. The market’s own pages give two different closing times an hour apart. Plan for six and treat anything after that as a bonus.
Hawley Wharf retail opens at midday Monday to Wednesday. The food halls open at half eleven and run to eleven at night every day of the week.
North Yard is the evening. The restaurants there open every evening, which is the part of the market still working when the stalls have packed up.
Three stations serve it. Camden Town at five minutes is the obvious one and the busiest. Camden Road overground at eight minutes and Chalk Farm at ten are both quieter approaches, and Chalk Farm puts you at the Hawley Wharf end.
Use the map rather than the signs. Camden publishes an interactive trader map that gives walking directions inside the market. On a site this size, with this many separate yards, it is the difference between finding a specific stall and giving up.
Everything here was taken from the market’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026, and the Portobello comparison from Portobello’s own published schedule. Where Camden’s pages disagree with each other, both figures are given. Confirm before you travel.
Where to go next
The canal boat from Little Venice ends here, and London Zoo is a 15 minute walk away.
For eating specifically, the market is only half the answer. Camden restaurants covers why choosing a stall by name does not work, where the bookable tables are, and what is still serving after the food halls stop at eleven.
London’s food markets sorts the halls from the street markets, which is the difference between eating at eleven at night and finding everything shut at five.
Portobello Road Market is the direct comparison and the one that needs planning. Spitalfields Market is the third of the big three, and the most confusing of them: two websites, two sets of hours and a Thursday that opens two hours early for antiques.
Borough Market is the food one, and the restaurants around it cover eating there properly.
Things to do in Camden is the other half of the postcode: the Jazz Cafe, KOKO, the Roundhouse and the waterbus to Little Venice, which runs 45 minutes each way from 17 pounds.
Free things to do in London covers the rest of what costs nothing, and our main London guide has a visit end to end.
Questions we get asked
What day is Camden Market open?
Every day. Camden Market opens seven days a week including all bank holidays, and the only day of the year it closes is Christmas Day. Most traders work 10am to 6pm, though the market’s own visitor page gives the hours as 10am to 7pm. The North Yard restaurants stay open every evening, and the Hawley Wharf food halls run to 11pm.
Which is better, Camden or Portobello Market?
Camden if the day is fixed, Portobello if it is Saturday and you want antiques. Camden opens seven days a week and every bank holiday, closing only on Christmas Day. Portobello is a full market on Friday and Saturday only, shuts on every bank holiday except Good Friday, and has no Sunday street market outside summer and December. Its antique arcades open on Saturdays alone.
Is Camden Market good on a Sunday?
Yes, and no differently from any other day. Camden keeps the same hours all week, so a Sunday visit gets the same market as a Tuesday one, just busier. That is the practical advantage it holds over Portobello, which has no Sunday street market for most of the year, and over the markets that keep separate weekend hours.
What time does Camden Market close?
Six or seven in the evening, depending which of the market’s own pages you read. Their visitor page says 10am to 7pm and their opening hours answer says most traders work 10am to 6pm. They also note that individual businesses set their own times. Hawley Wharf retail closes at 6pm Sunday to Thursday and 7pm on Friday and Saturday, while its food halls run to 11pm every night.
Is Camden Market open on bank holidays?
Yes, all of them. Both the main market and Hawley Wharf state that they open on bank holidays, and the only closure in the year is Christmas Day. This is the opposite of Portobello Road Market, which closes on every bank holiday other than Good Friday.
What is the nearest tube to Camden Market?
Camden Town on the Northern line, about five minutes on foot and the busiest approach. Chalk Farm, also Northern line, is about ten minutes and lands you at the Hawley Wharf end of the site. Camden Road on the Overground is around eight minutes. Buses include the 214 from King’s Cross, the 24 from Victoria, the 274 from the West End and the 393 from east London.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 122 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
