Is Leadenhall Market open at the weekend?

The market is a public thoroughfare and you can walk through it at any time, but most of the shops, pubs and restaurants serve City workers and close on Saturday and Sunday. Visit on a weekday.

Is Leadenhall Market free?

Yes. There is no ticket and no booking. It is a public right of way.

Was Leadenhall Market in Harry Potter?

Yes. It was used for the approach to Diagon Alley in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and a blue shopfront in Bull's Head Passage stood in for the Leaky Cauldron entrance. It is an optician's shop.

What is the nearest station to Leadenhall Market?

Monument, Bank and Aldgate are all a few minutes' walk. Liverpool Street is slightly further.

When was Leadenhall Market built?

The current covered structure dates from 1881 and was designed by Sir Horace Jones, who also built Smithfield Market and designed Tower Bridge. A market has stood on the site since the fourteenth century, and beneath it lies the site of the Roman forum.

What is the best time to visit Leadenhall Market?

Early evening on a weekday, around five to seven. Lunchtime is packed with office workers and the weekend is largely closed.

Leadenhall Market: what to know before you go

Gracechurch Street, EC3V. Free, always open as a thoroughfare, and the single most ornate piece of Victorian ironwork in London. It is also the most common wasted journey in the City, because almost everything inside it shuts at the weekend.

The thing to get right

Go on a weekday. Leadenhall serves the City, so the shops, pubs and restaurants trade Monday to Friday and most close on Saturday and Sunday. The market itself is a public right of way and you can walk through it any time, so a weekend visit gets you the architecture and an empty arcade.

Lunchtime on a weekday is the opposite problem, packed with people from the surrounding offices between twelve and two. Early evening, around five to seven, is the sweet spot: everything open, the lights on under the roof, and room to look up.

What you are actually looking at

The current structure dates from 1881 and is by Sir Horace Jones, the City Architect who also built Smithfield and the old Billingsgate, and who designed Tower Bridge. The cream, maroon and green paintwork and the glass roof are the reason people photograph it.

There has been a market here since the fourteenth century, and underneath it is something considerably older: this is the site of the Roman forum and basilica, the largest such building north of the Alps. Nothing of it is visible from the market floor, but that is what you are standing on.

The Harry Potter question

Yes. Leadenhall was used for the Diagon Alley approach in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and the blue shopfront in Bull’s Head Passage stood in for the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. It is an optician’s, it is still blue, and there is usually somebody photographing it.

Worth knowing: the interior scenes were built on a set, so what is here is the exterior and the passage, not a recreation of anything.

Practical

Free, no ticket, no booking. Nearest stations are Monument, Bank and Aldgate, all a few minutes away, with Liverpool Street a longer walk.

It is covered, which makes it one of the better wet-weather stops in the City, and it takes about fifteen minutes unless you eat there.

At Christmas it is decorated properly and is one of the more atmospheric corners of the City in December, though again, weekdays.

What to combine it with

St Dunstan in the East is a ten-minute walk south and is the best free half hour in the City. The Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street is five minutes away and free with a booked slot. The Bank of England Museum is free and weekdays only, which fits the same trip.

All three are in our free things guide, and what is actually on in the City is in the City listings.