Qualla: Maltby Street Market

Maltby Street Market: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Harold Amos, CC BY-SA 4.0. On a Saturday morning the narrow yard fills with the smell of bone broth, sourdough, smoked salmon, and Spanish chorizo crisping on a grill. The arches overhead were built in 1836 for steam trains heading toward Greenwich - the first elevated railway anywhere in the world - and they still rumble overhead at regular intervals. Beneath them, on what was once a ropewalk where workers braided rigging for the sailing ships of the London Docks, thirty or so food traders set out their stalls each weekend. Maltby Street Market exists because a handful of stallholders got themselves thrown out of Borough Market in 2011 and decided to take their customers with them.

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Image: William Harold Amos | CC BY-SA 4.0

Maltby Street Market: Where Sailors and Tanners Worked

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Harold Amos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Bermondsey was a working district long before it became a foodie one. Sitting on the south bank just upstream of the Pool of London, the area served the merchant marine for centuries - tanneries, rope walks, vinegar factories, leather warehouses, biscuit bakeries, breweries. The ...

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Image: William Harold Amos | CC BY-SA 4.0

Maltby Street Market: The First Elevated Railway

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, Public domain. The railway arches that run the length of the market were built between 1836 and 1839 for the London and Greenwich Railway, the first steam railway in the capital and the earliest elevated railway in the world. The decision to elevate the entire line on a brick viaduct - some 878...

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Image: Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle | Public domain

Maltby Street Market: How the Rebellion Started

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SilkTork, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2009 a group of Borough Market traders began renting storage in railway arches around Maltby Street, about a mile from their main pitches. The Monmouth Coffee Company opened its arch on Saturdays to sell coffee, and other producers followed - selling cheese, charcuterie, oyste...

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Image: SilkTork | CC BY-SA 3.0

Maltby Street Market: What's on the Stalls

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Harold Amos, CC BY-SA 4.0. On a typical weekend Maltby Street fits roughly thirty traders along the narrow walk between Tanner Street and Millstream Road, with more set up inside the railway arches that flank the route. The cast rotates - some traders stay for years, others cycle out and new ones cycle in....

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Image: William Harold Amos | CC BY-SA 4.0

Maltby Street Market: The Salvage Yard

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Harold Amos, CC BY-SA 4.0. What gives Maltby Street its particular character is the host: LASSCO, the London Architectural Salvage and Supply Company, has occupied the yard for decades, dealing in reclaimed timber, stone, fittings, and architectural fragments. The food market was originally pitched in 2009...

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Image: William Harold Amos | CC BY-SA 4.0