The best flea markets in London

Though Brick Lane Market boasts a variety of markets, the highlight for fashion fans has got to be this bountiful vintage bonanza. You’ll find a buzzing crowd of arty students, bona-fide East End locals and hip attention-seekers riffling through rails stuffed with everything from ’20s finery to ’90s throwbacks, as well as the odd showstopping accessory. 

Mon-Fri 11am-6.30pm, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 10am-6pm. Check in advance here.

Clapton’s Chatsworth Road Market sure is old. In the ’30s it had 200 stalls peddling their wares five days a week. After the war, the market dwindled and finally petered out in 1990 leaving Chatsworth Road bereft. Chatsworth returned regularly in 2010, thanks to a campaign from locals and traders. Now you’ll find more than 40 stalls selling ethically sourced garb from India, natural knitting wool, vintage clothes and accessories alongside stalls showcasing the work of local designers, plus gourmet food, cakes and preserves – and more than its fair share of hipsters. 

Sunday 11am-4pm. More details here.

Best known for antiques and collectables, Portobello Road is actually several markets rolled into one: antiques start at the Notting Hill end; further up are food stalls; under the Westway and along the walkway to Ladbroke Grove is where you’ll find retro fashion and emerging designers. It gets absolutely jam-packed on Saturdays, which is also when you’ll find the biggest range of stalls: go ready to get swept up in the joyful chaos.

Mon-Wed 9am-6pm, Thu 9am-1pm, Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-7pm (antiques). More details here.

Whatever your heart desires, you’ll find it in this rabbit warren of a building in Walthamstow. There are food stalls, beauty shops, jewellery makers and more at Wood Street. What it’s absolutely best at, though, is old stuff: vintage clothes, antique homeware, retro toys. There’s even a football-memorabilia shop. Best of all? It’s all under cover, so it makes for the perfect rainy day out.

Tue-Sat, 10am-5.30pm. More details here.

Housed in a huge art deco building, Alfies Antique Market has been one of London’s top spots for collectors, celebs and bargain-hunters for more than 40 years. Everything is carefully curated, and this is reflected in the prices, but if you’re serious about picking up a beautiful one-of-a-kind gem, this huge antiques arcade is hard to beat.

Tue-Sat 10am-6pm. More details here.

A small market with a stellar stall line-up focusing mainly on items for the home. Look out for quirky pieces such as tea sets from the ’30s, coat hooks from the ’50s and colourful curtains from the ’60s. Kitchen finds aside, there’s also vintage clothing on sale for those who can’t live without a retro fashion fix – items range from brooches and petticoats to tea dresses and handbags.

First weekend of every month. Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1pm-5pm. £1.50 admission. Check here for future dates. 

This weekly vintage and makers market in Vinegar Yard SE1, brings heaps of antiques, clothing, homeware, books, bikes and cameras. It’s is less about old junk and more about careful curation. With its colourful display of eclectic goods, you’ll definitely end up leaving with something. It just probably won’t be what you came for.

Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm. More details here.

Greenwich’s long-established covered market boasts daily arts and craft stalls, with a few decent food traders too. Antiques and collectables dealers join them on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, trading in jewellery, vintage clothes, old books, 1950s and ’60s ceramics, lamps, cameras and more. There are also vintage stalls at the weekends at the foot of Crooms Hill and beside Greenwich Picturehouse cinema.

Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun 10am-5.30pm. More details here.

Despite the name, Hackney Flea Market has been known to pop up as far afield as Peckham and Walthamstow. But wherever you find it, this roaming market offers an eclectic range of items including jewellery, vintage fabrics, mid-mod furniture, old maps and kitchenalia. Homemade delicacies are on hand throughout the day, as well as DJs, to keep sugar levels and spirits high.

Check here for future dates. 

Opened in 1880 as a ‘waste’ market for people to trade unwanted goods, this Hackney hotspot was once the place to go for secondhand stuff, but by 2015 trading had dwindled to just one stall. The new market runs weekly on Saturdays. In keeping with 138 years of tradition, there are stalls selling secondhand bargains, vintage goods and collectables, antiques, and also the occasional ‘waste’ trader. Long live Kingsland Market!

Sat, 9am-4pm. More details here.

Though not everyone is a fan of the redevelopment of Spitalfields (particularly those pushed out by the rising rents), the market has had a new lease of life. The East End stalwart now comprises the refurbished 1887 covered market and the adjacent modern shopping precinct. Every Thursday there’s a good antiques market with Victoriana, mid-mod classics and ’60s/’70s/’80s homeware kitsch. There’s also the Vinyl Market on the first and third Fridays of the month, with everything from obscure ’60s psychedelia to ’90s New York hip hop.

Thu, 8am-5pm. More details here. 

Deptford Market on the High Street is a regular street market (pants, rugs, fruit and veg), with a side wing of proper dead-nan junk attached. On Douglas Way by the Albany, there’s a sprawling, messy mass of stallholders peddling everything under the sun. Sorting through half-used tins of talcum powder and broken electronics makes finding the treasure even more rewarding, but (generally) don’t attempt to barter for it. Prices are already dirt cheap and traders have zero time for punters they think are taking the piss.

Every Wed, Fri and Sat, 9am-5.30pm. More details here.

The charming covered market hall located on the south side of Covent Garden’s famous Piazza is open every day for a variety of stalls. Mondays from 5am-5pm are devoted to antiques and collectables. Browsers will find an eclectic array of knick-knacks, including porcelain plates, old coins, art deco figurines and legend ‘John the Hat’, who has flogged steel and silver cutlery here for more than 20 years. 

Mon 5am-5pm (antiques and collectables). More details here. 

You’ll find china, silver and glassware shimmering in the morning light at Bermondsey Antiques Market. Early birds will be rewarded with bargains and first dibs on jewellery, eighteenth-century Italian paintings and old French maps. The way Londoners shop has changed drastically since the market’s inception in 1855, but a rummage through the dusty offerings here still feels like you’ve wandered into a Dickens novel (something you generally don’t get at Westfield). 

Every Friday, 6am-2pm. Check in advance here. 

For those willing to travel OUTSIDE LONDON *gasp*, this bi-monthly market is well worth a trek. A hotspot for professional prop buyers, it’s also great for average joes looking for anything-but-average homeware. It attracts European traders too, so you don’t have to cross the Channel for your chic vide-grenier French farmhouse furniture. A second location at Sandown Park Racecourse means double the vintage joy. Get there early (6.30am!) for the pick of the litter.

Check here for future dates.