Historic Kirkgate Market For Food and Shopping in Leeds City Centre

Leeds is a great place to shop. Between its restored Victorian arcades and gleaming 21st-century shopping centres, the city centre is packed with big brands, traditional family-owned stores and trendy indie boutiques. At the heart of it all stands Kirkgate Market, a source of pride among locals for many generations. Europe’s largest building of its kind when it first opened in 1857, the site has since evolved into a sprawl of trading areas with more than 800 stalls. Traditional bakers and greengrocers stand alongside popular vendors serving up the city’s favourite street foods, while specialist retailers sell everything from books to bedding and fabrics to fragrances. With comfortable, convenient rooms nearby at Novotel Leeds Centre, you could easily spend a whole day exploring, shopping, snacking and soaking up the atmosphere. Here’s our guide to making the most of this landmark city market.

There was a market on this site as early as 1822, well before the current structure was built, and the surrounding centre of Leeds has been a trading area since the Middle Ages. Opened in 1857, the original Kirkgate Market hall was designed by Joseph Paxton, the same architectural genius who designed the Crystal Palace in London.
 

World-renowned British high street chain store Marks & Spencer began life right here in Kirkgate Market in 1884, when a trader named Michael Marks set up his own stall where everything cost a penny. Soon after he partnered with Tom Spencer and together they became retailing legends. In 1894, the market introduced a cooling area for fishmongers to store fresh seafood straight from the coast. Nicknamed “Fish Row”, it showcased the very latest technology of the late Victorian era.
 

The spirit and resilience of the traders has been tested time and again. During World War II, the market hardly ever closed despite bombing raids. A huge fire broke out just before Christmas in 1975 and many businesses were lost, but the traders fought the flames and were so quick to get back to work that the market reopened just four days later!

• Pro tip: For more on the history of the market, book a free guided heritage tour with a resident expert. On an hour-long Saturday morning walk-and-talk through the bustling halls you’ll hear all about the building and its eventful past.

Kirkgate first opened as one vast covered market, but centuries of expansion and renovation have added all sorts of indoor and outdoor spaces, each with its own distinct design and character. Start in the 1875 Hall, which is bookended by Butchers’ Row on one side and Fish and Game Row on the other. This Victorian-era hall was badly damaged by the fire of 1975 – what remains is an old-fashioned hub for meat and fish vendors. At the 1904 Hall, an Art Nouveau exterior leads you into a magnificent arrangement of stalls beneath a landmark ornamental clock, a soaring glass roof and an iron balcony decorated with green paint and red dragons.
 

Follow Butchers’ Row into the 1976 Hall, a steel-framed open-plan space where you’ll find an eclectic mix of nail salons, jewellers and spice merchants, among many others. On the other side of a partition wall is the 1981 Hall, which hosts a similarly varied mix of hairdressers, carpet-weavers and so on. Finally, the outdoor market offers three more rows of traders in the open air. Many fresh produce vendors operate out here, but it’s also a busy cluster for clothing and electrical goods.

Different vendors may come and go, but some at Kirkgate Market Leeds have occupied the same spot and served the same product for decades, or more. To get the full market experience, visit some of the longest-standing stalls.
 

Hayes Seafoods (1875 Hall) is perhaps the oldest of Kirkgate Market food vendors. This iconic fishmonger has been a favourite since 1880, and chatting in the queue for fresh, ready-to-eat oysters is a true rite of passage in Leeds. In the outdoor market, Oliver’s Fruit & Veg is a real go-to grocer for better quality and prices than most of the big supermarkets. Much of the fresh produce is grown locally, though you’ll also find exotic chili peppers among the British apples and pears.
 

Looking for something to take home? The Nut Shop (1904 Hall) features a lovely array of glass jars full of nuts, dried fruits, baking ingredients and vegan chocolates, plus a Christmas Cake mix that many locals swear by. In the same hall, don't forget to look out for M & D Flowers. Also known by the name of co-owner Ada Proctor, this bright and colourful stall for floral arrangements and potted plants has been operating for more than 30 years.

Like most traditional markets, Kirkgate used to be the place to buy all your fresh ingredients for cooking at home. Then the Market Kitchen opened in 2016, creating a kind of food court for on-site dining with a dynamic range of international cuisines and street foods (including vegan options).
 

Among the first stalls to open at the food hall, is Banh & Mee, a “Vietnamese street kitchen” that has become an ever-popular lunch spot, with a bumper menu of spicy noodle soups and bao buns. Pollini’s Pizza Slice is another busy lunch spot, laid out like a classic Italian pizza shop. Buy a slice to go or grab a seat at one of the red-and-white checkered tables, and if it’s still a little early their breakfast pizza (sausage, egg and mushroom) will set you up for the day.
 

In the mood for some traditional British fare? The Fisherman’s Wife is a local institution with its original shop on George Street, which has been serving classic British fish and chips for almost 60 years in Leeds City Centre. This Kirkgate Market unit maintains the same high standard, using only the best cod and haddock brought in fresh from Whitby Bay. Round off your meal at Bluebird Bakery, which uses organic flour and long fermentation techniques to make all sorts of flavoursome sourdough breads and granary loaves. Try one of their five-spice vegan rolls for lunch, and one of their secret-recipe Bluebird Brownies for dessert.

Besides the everyday action of Kirkgate Market that gives you a real slice of life in Leeds, the various halls also host weekend fairs, summer concerts and regular events for kids that help make the place a true cross-cultural venue. In summer, the outdoor space makes room for climbing walls and roller-skating rinks, while the run-up to Christmas brings a specially curated market for festive goods, visits from Santa and live seasonal music.
 

Depending on the day of your visit, you might also be able to catch the weekly Asian Bazaar, where traders set out stalls for jewels, clothes, sweets and spices from across the Indian subcontinent in a real sensory banquet of colours and aromas. Wednesdays 10:30am–5pm
 

Leeds Record Fair, meanwhile, brings collectors, DJs, “crate-diggers” and casual music fans from all over the north of England to browse for bargains across almost 50 tables of vinyl. Every second Saturday of the month, 10am–4pm

• Kirkgate Market, main entrance Vicar Lane, Leeds LS2 7HY
• Open 8am-5pm, Monday to Saturday. Some units may begin trading earlier and/or stay open slightly later.
• For more information

Two great Accor hotels give you ideal accommodation options close to Kirkgate Market. Novotel Leeds Centre is only five minutes’ walk from the train station, and fifteen from the market. The hotel’s Soap Factory Cocktail Lounge & Kitchen is rooted in the local bar scene and food culture, with other Leeds landmarks such as Saint Anne Cathedral close by. It’s an even shorter walk of ten minutes or so to ibis Styles Leeds City Centre Arena, which prides itself on a classically friendly Yorkshire welcome and a cool design inspired by the region’s industrial history.
 

There’s so much to do in Kirkgate Market that you’ll have to make more time to see the rest of Leeds. And if you’re keen to explore the North of England, check out our guides to the Manchester Music Scene and walking the York Walls.