Visit St Albans Markets | St Albans City and District Council

I loved the market, each stall is set out with plenty of room to manoeuvre around. I saw lots of people with pushchairs and wheelchairs, they had plenty of room to look at each stall and move around.
Lots of variety with the stall holders, who were all lovely and very friendly. The market was very clean even around the stalls selling food. The stall holders take responsibility and look after the market and one another.

Review by Natalie

When to come to the markets

St Albans Market is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 9am and 4.30pm and on the second Sunday of each month between 8am and 2pm.

Getting here

Our address

St Peter’s Street, St Albans AL1 3ED

Bus Toggle accordion

230, 300, 301, 302, 304, 305, 357, 361, 601 The Alban Way, 602, 653 Tigermoth, S4, S5, and S6.

Plan your bus journey using the Intalink journey planner.

Railway Toggle accordion

The nearest stations are St Albans Abbey and St Albans City.

Plan your train journey using Network Rail’s journey planner.

Car Parking Toggle accordion

Parking at, nearby, Drovers Way multi-story car park costs £3.80 for three hours parking on Wednesdays and Saturdays and £1.50 all day on Sundays (Car Parks and On Street Pay and Display).

Mobility Support Toggle accordion

If you have mobility issues, you might be able to borrow a scooter from St Albans Shopmobility.

Toilets and baby changing facilities Toggle accordion

There are accessible public toilets in the Bricket Road and Drovers Way car parks as well as in the Museum + Gallery which is open from 11:00. There are baby changing stations in the women’s toilet at Drovers Way and in the Museum + Gallery.

What to buy at St Albans Market? Toggle accordion

We host 150 traders on our market.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays you can buy produce, gifts, and homeware for sale as well as a selection of international street food. You can also find watch and phone repairs. On the second Sunday of each month we focus on local food and drink, sustainable arts and crafts, and much more.

St Albans Virtual Market Toggle accordion

Whether you have a craving for international street food, a picture that isn’t going to frame itself, or a sudden thirst for small-batch–artisanal-gin; we know that some of you are too impatient to wait for the next market day. Whilst many of our traders are old-school market grafters up for a haggle, down for a deal, and incapable of living indoors; more than a few will cater to your needs online.

So if you’re agoraphobic (agora being Greek for a market) or can’t face a busy shambles (shambles being the word for the area of market where butchery takes place), but you still want quality at cheap prices (cheap being old English for a market), then choose one of the following categories to get links to a selection of our Charter and Farmers market traders:

Griffiths Brothers—We’re a family run distillery in the Buckinghamshire village of Penn Street, deep in the Chiltern Hills
Watergull Orchards—a Family Owned and Run Business For Over 20 years, Producing Single Variety Apple Juices, Mixed Flavour Juices, Pear Juice and Cider. All From Tree To Bottle Within Cambridgeshire.

Learn the history

The market was established in circa 860 by Wulsin, the sixth abbot of St Albans.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the right to hold the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays were sold to the town in 1553 via letters patent by Edward VI which also incorporated St Albans as a borough. Read a translation of the letters patent.

Learn more about the history of St Albans Market on Wikipedia.

The Market circa 1880

Courtesy of St Albans Museums

The market in 1938

The Market in 1938, courtesy of St Albans Museums

Market Day from Clock Tower

St. Albans Market Day from Clock Tower by Betsy has been placed in the The Public Domain. Taken Saturday, 17^th September 1966.

The Charter Market in 2005

The Market in 2005, courtesy of St Albans Museums

Our market today

The following sketches of our market were made in 2022 and are reproduced here with the kind permission of local artist Rydal Hanbury. Follow Rydal on Instagram to keep up with her latest work.