Borough Market: A Thousand Years of Food

Why is it significant?

Step beneath the green cast-iron art deco arches of Borough Market and breathe in the rich aromas of roasting coffee, bubbling duck confit, artisan sourdough, and ripe wheels of farmhouse Cheddar cheese.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step beneath the green cast-iron art deco arches of Borough Market and breathe in the rich aromas of roasting coffee, bubbling duck confit, artisan sourdough, and ripe wheels of farmhouse Cheddar cheese. Look around at the historic green ironwork and Victorian brick railway viaducts overhead: food traders have gathered on this exact patch of Southwark riverbank for over one thousand years, since at least ten fourteen.

In medieval times, farmers from Kent and Surrey gathered outside the city walls at the southern foot of London Bridge to sell grain and livestock without paying the heavy tolls charged by the City of London magistrates. The market grew so chaotic that in seventeen fifty-six Parliament closed it down, but Southwark locals raised six thousand pounds to purchase this triangle of land and reopened the market under independent public trustees.

Look up at the rumbling railway lines overhead: in the nineteenth century, railway engineers had to elevate their tracks on viaducts right through the market hall, creating the dramatic urban roofscape where steam trains once whistled above fruit stalls.

Weave through the gourmet food stalls toward the haunting stone ruins of Winchester Palace.