Christmas at Borough Market 2026: London Food and Hampers

In December, Borough Market fills with Londoners stocking up for the big day, and with visitors who’ve come for the food stalls. There are no chalets, just the regular butchers, bakers and cheesemongers at their busiest, with a few seasonal guest stalls tucked in among them. A Borough Market Christmas is best done hungry: eat your way round first, then leave with something for the table.

Christmas at Borough Market 2026

Dates

Status: Confirmed
Festive dates: 30th November to 31st December 2026
Last checked: October 2026

Update: Dates were announced in October. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified of changes.

Source: Verified by Ultimate Christmas Markets via Borough Market.

Plan Your Visit

Location and Times

Location: 8 Southwark Street, near London Bridge Station.

Opening times:
Monday to Friday: 10am to 5pm
Saturday: 9am to 5pm
Sunday: 10am to 4pm

23rd December: 10am to 6pm
Christmas Eve: 8am to 3pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: Closed
27th December: Closed
New Year’s Eve: 10am to 3pm
New Year’s Day: Closed

Travel and Accommodation

Recommended tour: London’s top 20 sights tour.
Public transport: Take the Jubilee or Northern line to London Bridge Station, which also has National Rail services. Borough Station on the Northern line is a short walk away.
Parking: Please take public transport to help limit congestion.
Where to stay: The Hoxton is in the Southwark neighbourhood.

Amenities and Attractions

Admission: Free
Reason to visit: Oldest food market in London.

Dietary Options

Vegetarian: Plenty of options.
Vegan: Plenty of options.
Gluten free: Some options.
Specialties: British cheeses, raclette, sausage rolls, mince pies, handmade chocolate truffles and seasonal street food.

Accessibility

Accessible: Yes.
Pet-friendly: Yes, but not recommended during busy periods.

Hotels in the Area

Staying around London Bridge or Southwark Station puts you a short walk from Borough Market and the river. I recommend The Hoxton for its excellent location near Southwark Station.

Interesting Tours

This tour of the top 20 sights in London is a great place to start.

For something different, try this Secret Old London walking tour.

If you’re interested in London’s culinary scene, a food tour is a fun alternative. This is a hugely popular London food tour that I took a few years ago, and it still rates highly.

Read our complete London Christmas Markets guide.

If you’re looking to head out of the capital, visit one of these UK Christmas Markets.

Visitor Feedback

What Visitors Loved

• The range of ready-to-eat food is the big draw, from cheese toasties and raclette at Kappacasein to oysters and Bread Ahead’s crème brûlée doughnuts.
• It’s free to wander, and plenty of visitors say tasting and browsing the produce was the best part, even before they’d bought a thing.
• The quality of the cheese, bread and meat gets regular praise, and many visitors leave with something to cook at home.
• It’s an easy stop on a day along the river, with Southwark Cathedral next door and the Thames a minute away.

Common Complaints

• Weekends and the lunchtime rush are shoulder to shoulder, and every perch to eat on is taken.
• Queues at the best-known stalls can be long, especially for doughnuts, toasties and oysters.
• Prices have crept up as the Market’s fame on social media has grown.
• Long-time visitors feel it now leans towards tourists eating on the go rather than locals doing their shopping.

The Bottom Line

Arrive at opening on a weekday and you’ll have room to taste, ask the cheesemongers for advice and shop without being jostled. If you’re after a turkey or a particular cheese for Christmas, ask the trader about ordering ahead rather than hoping it’s still there on Christmas Eve.

Location

What to Expect

Borough Market trades all year beneath the railway viaducts beside Southwark Cathedral, so the season shows on the counters rather than in the decorations. The butchers and cheesemongers gear up for Christmas orders, and seasonal guest stalls set up among the regulars.

It’s at its best as a place to graze. The Borough Market Kitchen traders add festive specials to their menus, and you can work your way from raclette to a sausage roll to a mince pie before buying anything to take home. The Market has traded on this patch of Southwark for around a thousand years. In the days before Christmas, with shopping lists in hand, its customers remind you it’s still a working market.

Food Specialties

• British Cheese: Neal’s Yard Dairy and the other cheesemongers sell farmhouse cheeses from Britain and Ireland, and they’re happy to help you build a cheeseboard.
• Raclette: At Kappacasein, London-made raclette is melted and scraped over new potatoes with gherkins and pickled onions.
• Turkey and Festive Roasts: Free-range and rare-breed turkeys from the poultry stalls, and roasts such as porchetta from the butchers.
• Christmas Pudding: Slow-matured, butter-rich puddings have been sold by a specialist maker in recent seasons, and they travel well if you’re taking one home.
• Mince Pies: Made by British bakers at the Market’s bakeries.
• Chocolate Truffles: Handmade by chocolatiers, with fillings such as mint, orange and caramel, and often boxed for gifting.
• Sausage Rolls: Bakers and butchers each have their own version, and visitors often name them among the best bites in the Market.
• Mulled Wine: Recent seasons have seen it poured by a wine merchant, which shows in the quality of the wine.
• Festive Street Food: The Borough Market Kitchen traders add seasonal specials to their menus through December.

Gifts and Stocking Fillers

• Cheese Hampers: Boxed selections have been a guest-stall favourite in recent seasons, and a safe choice for anyone who’s hard to buy for.
• Dates and Advent Calendars: Gift boxes from a date trader that checks its supply chain for fair pay with visits and audits.
• Chilli Gifts: A Wiltshire chilli farm has brought sauces and jars for heat lovers to recent guest stalls.
• Jams, Sauces and Preserves: Small-batch jars from the regular traders, plus limited-edition festive versions made for gifting.
• Fine Teas: Traditional blends and herbal infusions to take home.
• Craft Beer: Bottles and cans from small London and British brewers.
• Borough Market Store: The Market’s own shop, with tote bags and festive gifts.

Sustainable Shopping Tips

• Bring a water bottle: The Market stopped selling single-use plastic water bottles and put in free public drinking fountains, which have since done over 3 million refills.
• Surplus goes to charity: At the end of each trading day, Plan Zheroes volunteers collect unsold food from more than 50 traders for local charities and community groups, with some deliveries made by bike.
• Try the leftovers: Several traders turn surplus into something new, from Bread Ahead’s bread pudding to Karaway Bakery’s rye fries, a Lithuanian snack made from stale rye bread.
• Walk in along the river: The Thames Path along Bankside links the Market with Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge, so you can arrive on foot from the South Bank.