Borough Market without the queue
Borough Market is genuinely good and genuinely badly navigated. Most visitors arrive at one o’clock on a Saturday, join the longest queue they can see, and leave having eaten one thing.
5 min readUpdated
When to go
Tuesday to Thursday, between ten and half eleven. Full trading, no crowd. Friday is busier but still workable. Saturday is the market at its best and its worst at the same time, everything is open and you will queue for all of it.
The market is closed on Mondays for most traders. Sunday is limited.
How to read a queue
A long queue of people photographing the queue means a stall that went viral. A short queue of people in work clothes buying quickly means a stall that is good. Follow the second one.
What the market is actually for
It started as a wholesale produce market and the produce is still the strongest thing in it. The cheese, the fish, the bread and the mushrooms are the reason chefs shop here. The street food is good but it is not the point.
Where to eat sitting down
There is almost nowhere to sit inside the market. Take food to the churchyard at Southwark Cathedral, ninety seconds away, or down to the river at Clink Street.
What to take home
Cheese vacuum-packed at the counter travels fine. So does anything cured. Ask, most traders will pack for a flight if you tell them you are flying.