Borough Market, London – the food market by London Bridge since the 13th century

A market has stood at the southern end of London Bridge since at least 1276. Today Borough Market fills Victorian iron halls beside Southwark Cathedral and is run by a charitable trust of local volunteers. Here is its history – and how to visit London's best-known food market.

Borough Market lies on Southwark Street and Borough High Street in south London, just south of Southwark Cathedral at the southern end of London Bridge. It is one of the oldest food markets in the city and today a destination in its own right, with stalls of produce, bread, cheese, meat and street food under Victorian iron roofs. The market itself claims to date back to 1014 and probably earlier.

01A market at the foot of London Bridge

According to Wikipedia, the site dates back to at least the 12th century, and a market next to the end of London Bridge was first mentioned in 1276. In 1550 Edward VI granted the City of London a royal charter to control all Southwark markets, which Charles II confirmed in 1671. By the 18th century the market caused such traffic congestion on the approach to the bridge that Parliament abolished it in 1754. A further Act allowed local parishioners to set up a new market, which reopened in 1756 on a 4.5-acre site in Rochester Yard – the market's home ever since.

02Victorian halls and a portico from Covent Garden

The present buildings were designed in 1851 by Henry Rose, with additions in the 1860s, and an Art Deco entrance on Southwark Street was added in 1932. In 2004 the South Portico was re-erected here: it came from the Floral Hall at Covent Garden, dismantled when the Royal Opera House was rebuilt in the 1990s, and it was Grade II listed in its new setting in 2008. The market is a charitable trust run by volunteer trustees, who must live in the area.

03Borough Market on screen and in 2017

The market's lanes and arches have appeared in films including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). In June 2017 the area was the scene of the London Bridge attack, in which eight people were killed; the market was closed for 11 days afterwards.

04How to visit Borough Market

The retail market is open six days a week and closed on Mondays, except in December. Come early on a weekday to see the traders at their best and before the lunchtime crowds, walk the halls under the iron roofs, and finish at Southwark Cathedral next door or on the riverside towards Tate Modern. Explore the streets in VERA PI's street files for Stoney Street and Borough High Street, see all of Southwark, or start with VERA PI's London guide.

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