Some of the stalls on a quiet day in Old Spitalfields Market

Old Spitalfields Market

Top choice in Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields

LoginSave

Traders have been hawking their wares here since 1638, and it's still one of London's best markets. Sundays are the biggest days, but Thursdays are good for antiques, and crates of vinyl take over every other Friday. The market upped its foodie credentials with the Kitchens, 10 food counters that are the perfect anecdote to the mostly bland chain restaurants on the market's periphery.

Big names from East London's street-food scene have taken up residence: don't miss the bao from Yum Bun, pastrami sandwiches from Monty's Deli or shengjianbao (pan-fried soup dumplings) from Dumpling Shack.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • The Long Walk, the pathway leading to Windsor Castle is 2 1/2 miles long.

    Windsor Castle

    22.98 MILES

    The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…

  • Westminster Abbey.

    Westminster Abbey

    2.64 MILES

    A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place…

  • Tate Modern museum on the southern bank of the River Thames.

    Tate Modern

    1.33 MILES

    One of London's most amazing attractions, Tate Modern is an outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery housed in the creatively revamped Bankside…

  • London Natural History Museum

    Natural History Museum

    4.66 MILES

    With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy…

  • St. pauls cathedral with red double decker bus in London, United Kingdom

    St Paul's Cathedral

    1.08 MILES

    Sir Christopher Wren’s 300-year-old architectural masterpiece is a London icon. Towering over diminutive Ludgate Hill in a superb position that's been a…

  • The Tower of London

    Tower of London

    0.8 MILES

    Few parts of the UK are as steeped in history or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of the Tower of London. Not only is…

  • Dusk view of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the banks of the River Thames in London

    Shakespeare's Globe

    1.24 MILES

    Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…

  • Great Court, British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

    British Museum

    2.23 MILES

    With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…

View more attractions

Nearby Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields attractions

1. Christ Church Spitalfields

0.06 MILES

This imposing English baroque structure, with a tall spire sitting on a portico of four great Tuscan columns, was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and…

2. 19 Princelet St

0.11 MILES

This grand 1719 town house was originally occupied by a prosperous Huguenot family of weavers, before becoming home to waves of immigrants, including…

3. Dennis Severs' House

0.14 MILES

This extraordinary Georgian house is set up as if its occupants – a family of Huguenot silk weavers – have just walked out the door. Each of the 10 rooms…

4. Old Truman Brewery

0.16 MILES

Founded here in the 17th century, Truman's Black Eagle Brewery was, by the 1850s, the largest brewery in the world. Spread over a series of brick…

5. Whitechapel Gallery

0.34 MILES

A firm favourite of art students and the avant-garde cognoscenti, this ground-breaking gallery doesn't have a permanent collection but is devoted to…

6. Heron Tower

0.34 MILES

Officially named 110 Bishopsgate, this skyscraper was completed in 2011. At 230m it's the tallest in the City, and the third tallest in all of London. The…

7. Whitechapel Road

0.38 MILES

The East End’s main thoroughfare hums with a constant cacophony of Asian, African, European and Middle Eastern languages, its busy shops and market stalls…

8. Bevis Marks Synagogue

0.39 MILES

Completed in 1701, this Grade I–listed Sephardic synagogue was the first to be built in Britain after Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to return in 1657, and…