Lower Marsh Market, Waterloo

Published 9 November 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Lower Marsh Market is a weekday lunchtime street market on Lower Marsh, the street running along the south side of Waterloo station. Its own website gives the hours as 11am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, and it is closed at weekends; most of the stalls sell hot food to eat standing up or on a bench, with a few selling clothes, records and second-hand goods.

It is not a destination market like Borough or Portobello. It is a working lunch market for the offices and hospitals around Waterloo, in a narrow street of low nineteenth-century shopfronts, and it is the best answer we know to a long wait for a train. From the Waterloo Road side of the station you can be at the first stall in about four minutes, eat a hot lunch for less than a pub main course costs by the river, and be back on the concourse with time to spare.

The restaurants, cafés and pubs on the same street belong to our guide to where to eat near Waterloo station, which names and rates them. This page is about the stalls: when they trade, what they sell, how to fit them into a gap between trains, and what is nearby if you have more time.

What the stalls sell

The market describes its mix as fresh produce, hot food from across the globe and craft products, and the trader list it published in November 2026 bears that out, with the weight firmly on hot food. On a typical weekday you will find street food from Nigeria, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico, Greece and Morocco, a falafel stall and a Cuban stand, most of it served in boxes you can carry away.

Between the food stalls are a handful of others: vintage denim and clothes, a record stall, an antiques and bric-a-brac table on some days, and gifts. The market's own list warns that each trader's days are only typical, and that traders may be missing for holidays or events, so do not travel across London for one particular stall. The council's description of the street mentions fruit and vegetables and flowers as well.

The market's operators insist on compostable packaging and cooking-oil recycling, and staff in blue high-visibility vests run it day to day. They also run a loyalty card for regulars: buy four hot meals and get £5 off the fifth, according to the market's site, which is a clue to who the market is really for.

When to go, and when not to

The stalls open at 11am and the market's peak is between about noon and 2pm, when people from the office blocks on Westminster Bridge Road and from St Thomas' Hospital come out for lunch. Queues at the popular stalls are longest around 12.30pm. Before noon you get the food without the queue, though one or two traders may still be setting up. After about 2.30pm stalls start to sell out and pack away, and by 3pm the market is finished.

There is a conflict in the official information about weekends. The market's own site says Monday to Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. Lambeth Council's filming-locations page for Lower Marsh lists a Saturday produce and flea market. We found no other current evidence of a Saturday market, so treat Lower Marsh as a weekday market and check before planning a Saturday around it.

Bank holidays and other closures

Bank holidays are the other trap. A bank holiday Monday or Good Friday falls on a weekday, but that does not mean the stalls trade, and closures are announced on the market's own notices rather than in its standard hours. Ask before relying on it. Our page on London on a bank holiday Monday explains what else changes on those days.

Fifty minutes at Waterloo: the market as a lunch break

This is where Lower Marsh is most useful. Waterloo's concourse is crowded, the food on it is the usual chain counters, and the riverside a few minutes north is priced for London Eye visitors. Lower Marsh is the other way, and quicker to reach than most people expect.

1. Leave by the Waterloo Road exit, at the eastern end of the concourse. Our Waterloo station guide explains the exits, whose numbers differ between Network Rail's own maps.
2. Head south on Waterloo Road towards the Old Vic theatre, then turn right into Baylis Road and right again into Lower Marsh. The market's own directions put it at about three minutes.
3. Walk the length of the stalls before choosing; the street is only about 300 metres long, and the choice changes every few metres.
4. Allow 25 minutes for queueing and eating, and ten minutes to get back and find your platform.

With suitcases, Leake Street is an alternative. The tunnel under the station's tracks, covered in our page on the Leake Street graffiti tunnel, runs from York Road on the river side of the station through to Lower Marsh, flat and traffic-free. It is a good way to come back as well: it delivers you close to the Victory Arch side of the station.

The street behind the stalls

The market's own history says it has operated since the 1800s and that at its peak it claimed to be the longest street market in Britain. Today it fills one stretch of a short street, and the buildings are the reason the street still looks old. Lower Marsh is lined with low Victorian buildings with shops on their ground floors, a scale that has otherwise largely gone from the streets around the station.

None of those shopfronts is individually listed, as far as Historic England's data shows. The most remarkable building is just round the western end, on Westminster Bridge Road. Westminster Bridge House, listed Grade II, is the office block of the London Necropolis Company's terminus, dated 1900. Its list entry describes a granite ground floor with a great arch and terracotta ornament above. From here, funeral trains carried coffins and mourners to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey; the rest of the terminus was demolished in the 1940s. The front is easy to miss, and few people walking past know what it was.

What else is within ten minutes

Lower Marsh sits between the South Bank and Lambeth, and a market lunch fits easily before or after something else.

• The Florence Nightingale Museum, inside St Thomas' Hospital, about eight minutes west. It has no café and itself points visitors to Lower Marsh for lunch.
• The Imperial War Museum, about fifteen minutes south past Lambeth North, free to enter.
• The London Eye and the riverside, five to ten minutes north through the station or the Leake Street tunnel.
• The Old Vic and the Young Vic, on The Cut a few minutes east, if you are eating before a matinee.

For the bigger weekday markets elsewhere in London, such as Leather Lane and Whitecross Street, our list of London markets by day of the week shows what runs when.

Frequently asked questions

What days is Lower Marsh Market open?

Monday to Friday, 11am to 3pm, according to the market's own website in November 2026. It is closed on Saturdays and Sundays and may not trade on bank holidays. The shops, cafés and pubs on Lower Marsh open on their own hours, including at weekends.

How far is Lower Marsh Market from Waterloo station?

About three to four minutes on foot from the Waterloo Road exit: south past the Old Vic, then right into Baylis Road and right into Lower Marsh. From Lambeth North Underground station on the Bakerloo line it is about two minutes.

Is Lower Marsh Market worth visiting as a tourist?

As a lunch stop, yes, particularly if you are passing through Waterloo or visiting the Florence Nightingale Museum or the Imperial War Museum. It is a small working market for local workers, not a sightseeing market, so it is not worth a special journey across London on its own.

Is there a market on Lower Marsh at the weekend?

The market's own site says no: it trades only Monday to Friday. A Lambeth Council page lists a Saturday produce and flea market, but we found no current evidence of one trading, so plan on weekdays only and check the market's latest notices before a Saturday visit.

Sources

• Lambeth Council (Film Lambeth) - Lower Marsh location information (checked November 2026)
• Historic England - Westminster Bridge House, list entry 1249875 (checked November 2026)
• Food Standards Agency - Food hygiene ratings register (checked November 2026)
• Transport for London - Lambeth North Underground station (checked November 2026)