Kensington markets: Open Art 10 Oct, Big Flea 31 Oct

Every market in this piece happens on the same short street. Phillimore Walk, running beside Kensington Central Library off Kensington High Street, takes a market every Saturday and every Sunday, and Opportunity Kensington has built September into a four-week run with two brand-new events in it.

The framing is deliberate. The original Kensington Market opened on the high street in 1967 and closed in 2000, and the business district is explicitly invoking it: the September programme is billed as “inspired by the iconic Kensington Market” (Opportunity Kensington, 17 August 2026).

Every Saturday market still to come

The dates and the Open Art hours are from the district’s own markets calendar, checked on 3 October. The Big Flea’s 4.30pm finish is from the September announcement, which said the markets “open from 10am on Phillimore Walk, Kensington, with All Ears running until 6pm and the others until 4.30pm”.

The Open Art Market is run by Open Art Spaces: original artwork and handmade pieces from independent artists, sold by the makers. Both dates also carry an Open Art Sketch Club, an urban sketching walk for any ability that meets at the market at 12pm, walks the area with drawing prompts and returns at 2.45pm, finishing at 3pm. The Big Flea is the district’s regular vintage market, put at over 60 stalls, and its 31 October date gets a gothic theme for Halloween (our Halloween page).

There is also a farmers market every Sunday, 10am to 2pm, on the same street, running to 20 December.

How September went: the full run

The two September launches

All Ears, on 12 September, was built for the London Design Festival and is a music and design market rather than a general one: artist and DJ talks, records, merch and zines, with pan-Asian street food. It also came with a free day of talks and music films in the Kensington Central Library Lecture Theatre, which is the building the market runs alongside. It ran later than any other market on the street, to 6pm.

Judy’s Vintage Market, on 19 September, landed during London Fashion Week and was promised as more than 50 traders showing emerging designers and makers, sustainable and upcycled fashion, jewellery, accessories, textiles and vintage.

Two things that do not line up

The road reopens before the market ends. The council’s traffic order closes Phillimore Walk between Hornton Street and Campden Hill from 7.30am until 3.00pm every Saturday, and that is the only closure listed for these markets (RBKC works and events bulletin, 27 August 2026, and unchanged in the 1 October edition). The organisers advertise the Big Flea to 4.30pm and the Open Art Market to 5pm. On the council’s own paperwork the street is open to traffic for the last ninety minutes of a Big Flea, and the last two hours of an Open Art Market. Neither side acknowledges the difference.

The postcode changes for the Sunday market. The Saturday markets are listed at Phillimore Walk, W8 7RG; the Sunday farmers market on the same street is listed at W8 7RX. Both appear on the same page.

When this stops

The closure order runs to 28 November 2026, and the last Saturday market advertised is the Big Flea on 28 November. The two match exactly, so nothing on this calendar carries into December except the Sunday farmers market. If a Christmas market is planned for Phillimore Walk, it has not been lodged with the council and it is not on the district’s calendar.

Getting there

Phillimore Walk is a few minutes’ walk from High Street Kensington station, off Kensington High Street and alongside Kensington Central Library. It is pedestrianised on market days, so there is nothing to park on. Our page on parking in Kensington and Chelsea sets out the borough’s charges, and roadworks and travel tracks what else is shut nearby.