Borough Market

What it actually is

There are really two markets layered together. One is the traditional producers' market: cheesemongers, fishmongers, bakers, spice and oil stalls, the kind of place Londoners genuinely shop for a weekend dinner. The other is the street-food market, the hot stalls and small kitchens where you queue for a paella, a hog roast roll, a grilled cheese, or a Maltese pastizzi and eat it standing up.

The market sits across a few connected areas under and around the railway viaduct near Southwark Cathedral, so it rambles a bit and there is no single front door. Wander in from Borough High Street or Stoney Street and let it unfold. Part of the appeal is that it is a working market with real food history, not a purpose-built food hall, even if the balance has tilted toward visitors over the years.

Eating your way through

The move is to graze: a few samples, then one or two hot things, then maybe a coffee or a wedge of brownie. Standout regulars people line up for include the toasted-cheese stall, the salt-beef and Scotch-egg counters, the fresh oysters, and the doughnut and brownie stalls, though the cast of traders shifts. Prices run higher than a normal lunch, so treat it as a tasting session rather than a cheap feed.

Seating is the real shortfall: there is very little of it, and at peak lunchtime you eat on your feet or perch on a wall. Cash is handy though most stalls take cards. Come with an appetite and low expectations about elbow room, and it works. Come expecting a relaxed sit-down lunch and it will frustrate you.

When it is open, and when it is heaving

Not every part runs every day. The full market, with the most traders, generally runs Wednesday through Sunday, while the early part of the week is quieter with fewer stalls open for lunch, and some traders take Mondays or Tuesdays off. Always sanity-check the current opening days on the market's own site before a special trip, because hours and trading days do shift.

Midday and early afternoon, especially Friday and Saturday, is the crush, when the lanes clog and queues stack up at the popular stalls. If you want to move and actually see what you are buying, come closer to opening or in the mid-afternoon lull. Sunday is calmer than Saturday. Rain pushes everyone under the same arches, which makes a busy day busier.

Around the market

You are right by London Bridge and the river, so it folds easily into a South Bank walk. Southwark Cathedral is next door and worth a quiet ten minutes, the Golden Hinde replica ship is moored a minute away, and the riverside path takes you west past Shakespeare's Globe and Tate Modern or east toward Tower Bridge.

There are good pubs around the edges, including some historic ones, if you want a sit-down and a pint after grazing. The whole area is dense with things to do, so plan the market as the food leg of a wider South Bank afternoon rather than a destination on its own.