Grainger Market

About Grainger Market

The Grainger Market was completed on 24 October 1835 to a design attributed to John Dobson, part of Richard Grainger's rebuilding of the town centre that swept away the older markets to make way for Grey Street. It is Grade I listed and still a working covered market rather than a heritage exhibit, with a vegetable market hall and four alleys of traders selling fish, meat, cheese, flowers, fabric, coffee and cheap hot food. It is free to walk in and one of the best wet-weather hours in the city.

In Alley 3 stands the world's oldest surviving Marks & Spencer, the Original Penny Bazaar, which has traded on the site since 1895 and is the chain's smallest branch, with its dark red and gold shopfront intact. Elsewhere in the market you will find independents that have become city institutions in their own right, among them Pumphrey's, trading as a coffee business since 1750, and North Shore Coffee Co. The market keeps shop hours rather than city-centre hours, closing at 5.30pm and on Sundays, so it rewards a morning or early-afternoon visit. Monument Metro is about two minutes away.

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Free Things to Do in Newcastle City Centre

Newcastle has four free museums and galleries, a Grade I listed covered market, two miles of medieval town wall, a thousand acres of common land and a free organ recital every Monday. Here is what genuinely costs nothing, and what used to be free but is not any more.