Tooting has two covered markets, next door to each other on the same stretch of high street, and both were built in the 1930s. Tooting Market opened in 1930 at 21 to 23 Tooting High Street. Broadway Market followed in March 1936 at number 29. Both are free to walk into, both are a minute from Tooting Broadway station, and together they take about half an hour.
Neither is Victorian, whatever you may read elsewhere, and neither is ten minutes from the Tube. The entrance to Tooting Market is roughly 150 metres from the Tooting Broadway ticket hall, on the same side of the road.
What they are is a pair of narrow indoor lanes lined with small units, and what fills those units has changed a great deal in the last fifteen years. Our guide to Tooting covers the lido, the commons and the high street; this page is about what is inside the two halls, which hall to walk into first, and what you will actually eat.
The two markets, side by side
- Tooting Market
- 21-23 Tooting High Street, SW17. Opened 1930. Entrances on the High Street and on Totterdown Street at the back
- Broadway Market
- 29 Tooting High Street, SW17. Opened March 1936. Several entrances onto the High Street
- Cost
- Both free to enter
- Station
- Tooting Broadway, Northern line, Zone 3, about two minutes' walk
- Time needed
- 20 minutes to walk both, an hour if you eat
- Opening hours
- Long, and later than most covered markets, but see the warning below
We could not re-read the opening hours in September 2026. The markets are privately run and their website refused our requests, and Wandsworth Council does not publish hours because these are not council markets. Our own record, taken from the market's own site earlier in 2026, is that Tooting Market trades from early morning until late evening and later still on Friday and Saturday nights. Treat that as a guide, not a guarantee, and check before travelling across London for a specific unit.
Which hall is which, and why there are two
The explanation is competition. Tooting Market was built first, in a purpose-built covered hall with the date carved above the entrance. Six years later a rival opened a few yards closer to the Underground station and called itself Broadway Market. They have been neighbours ever since, and nothing about the street tells you they are separate businesses.
From the pavement the difference is not obvious. Inside it is. Tooting Market is a single winding lane with a glass roof, barbers and nail bars near the High Street end, then food counters and small bars towards the back. Broadway Market is wider, with more than a hundred numbered units arranged in aisles, and it now reads as a food hall with shops around the edges.
One warning for anyone using a search engine: this Broadway Market has nothing to do with Broadway Market in Hackney, which is a Saturday street market eight miles north-east. They share a name and nothing else.
Photo: Planet Tooting · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
What is actually in Broadway Market now
The published picture of Broadway Market as a plain working market with fabric, haberdashery and household goods is out of date. The food register for 29 Tooting High Street tells a different story, and it is a striking one: this is now one of the most internationally mixed eating places in south London.
Within the same building, and all holding the top food hygiene rating at inspections between January 2025 and August 2026, there is a Chagossian kitchen, an Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurant, a Paraguayan grill, a Filipino eatery, a Puglian Italian, a Greek pitta counter, a Brazilian butcher and grocer, a Japanese bar, a Spanish tapas room and a Jamaican takeaway. There are barbecue and burger counters, a gin and tequila bar, and a Mexican kitchen.
Prices are the point. Our estimate in September 2026 is £8 to £14 for a plate at most of these counters, with drinks on top, which is roughly half what the same food costs in central London. Portions are generous rather than delicate. Most units take cards; a few of the grocers still prefer cash.
We checked every business on the register before writing about it, and we have not named several units in this hall. Two hold one out of five on their most recent inspection, and half a dozen more sit at three. Ratings are free to look up by address and every unit must display its certificate, so ask if you cannot see one.
What is actually in Tooting Market
Tooting Market is smaller and more mixed. The trade at the front is services rather than food: barbers, a nail bar, a phone repair counter, a record and vinyl seller. Walk further in and the food starts.
The units we can name, all rated five at inspections between June 2025 and September 2026, include a sourdough pizza room, a Mauritian and Creole takeaway, a Lebanese grill, a Mediterranean deli counter, a bakery counter, a small cafe and a bar at the back. There is a wine bar and a beer shop in the same lane, which is what makes this the market that stays open in the evening. There is also a long-established butcher, though its last recorded inspection was in 2023, so we have not put a name to it.
Two units in this hall are rated one and two out of five respectively, and we have left them out. Both sell hot food.
Go into both halls, and go into Broadway Market second. Tooting Market takes ten minutes and tells you what the area does for itself: haircuts, records, a butcher, a coffee. Broadway Market takes twenty and tells you who has moved here. Doing it in that order makes the second one make sense.
The South Asian food is on the street, not in the halls
Tooting is one of the best places in London to eat Sri Lankan Tamil, South Indian and Pakistani food, and almost none of it is inside the two markets. It is on the pavement outside: the stretch of Tooting High Street running south from the Broadway, and Upper Tooting Road running north towards Tooting Bec.
That is a distinction worth making before you plan a trip. If you have come for a dosa or a Sri Lankan string hopper, walk past both market entrances and keep going. Our guides to Sri Lankan and Tamil food and Indian food in London both point to this street, and halal food in London covers the butchers and grill houses along it.
Inside the halls, the international mix leans the other way: Latin American, African, Filipino, Mediterranean. Our page on Filipino food in London explains the dishes you will see at one of the Broadway Market counters, and eating cheaply in London sets Tooting against the other budget neighbourhoods.
What these markets are not
They are not antiques markets. There is no dealer trade here, no silver, no prints: for that you want Bermondsey on a Friday or Camden Passage midweek, both covered in our guide to London's antiques markets.
They are not souvenir markets either. Apart from food, spices and the occasional record, there is very little to take home. And they are not sights: the buildings are pleasant 1930s market halls, not architecture you would cross London for.
What they are is a place to eat well for very little money, twenty minutes from the centre on one train, in a part of London that has no other reason to put on a show for visitors. That is worth a couple of hours on a second or third trip. It is not worth a slot on a three-day first visit.
Worth the journey for
- Ten or fifteen cuisines within one building at £8 to £14 a plate
- A covered market that works in the rain and after dark
- Two markets, a lido and one of London's densest eating streets in one afternoon
- A single Northern line journey, no changes from most of central London
Not worth it for
- Shopping of any kind other than food
- Anyone on a short first visit to London
- Anyone who needs confirmed opening hours before setting out
- Sunday, when a noticeable number of units stay shut
Getting here, and the station that matters
Use Tooting Broadway, on the Morden branch of the Northern line, in Zone 3. Both markets are within two or three minutes of the ticket hall, on the east side of the High Street. Tooting Bec, the next station north, is about fifteen minutes' walk from the markets and is the wrong choice unless you are walking down the whole eating street on purpose.
Tooting Broadway is not step-free from street to platform. There are two National Rail stations called Tooting and Tooting Bec in the area, on different lines, and neither is convenient for the markets.
If you are combining Tooting with the rest of south London, Brixton's covered arcades are twenty-five minutes away by bus or two changes by Tube, and Balham is one stop north. The 91-metre open-air pool at Tooting Bec, one of the largest in Europe, is fifteen minutes from the markets and appears in our guide to swimming ponds and lidos.
Frequently asked questions
Are there two markets in Tooting?
Yes. Tooting Market at 21 to 23 Tooting High Street opened in 1930, and Broadway Market at number 29 opened in March 1936. They are separate businesses a few yards apart on the same street, and both are free to walk into.
What time do Tooting's markets open and close?
Both keep long hours and Tooting Market trades later into the evening than most covered markets, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday nights. The markets are privately run and we could not re-read their published hours in September 2026, so check before making a special journey.
Which Tooting market is better for food?
Broadway Market, at number 29, has far more kitchens and the wider international range: Chagossian, Ethiopian, Paraguayan, Filipino, Italian, Greek, Japanese and Spanish among others. Tooting Market has fewer kitchens but the better bars and the evening trade.
Is this the same as Broadway Market in Hackney?
No. Tooting's Broadway Market is a covered hall of about a hundred units on Tooting High Street in south London. Broadway Market in Hackney is an open-air Saturday street market in east London. The two have no connection beyond the name.
How do I get to Tooting Market from central London?
Take the Northern line, Morden branch, to Tooting Broadway in Zone 3. It is a single journey with no changes from Bank, London Bridge, Waterloo, Leicester Square or Euston, and the markets are two minutes from the station exit on the same side of the High Street.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings, Tooting Market, 21-23 Tooting High Street (checked September 2026)
- Food Standards Agency - food hygiene ratings, Broadway Market, 29 Tooting High Street (checked September 2026)
- Wandsworth Council - licensing and street trading (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Northern line and Tooting Broadway station (checked September 2026)