Leadenhall Market

A market has traded on this site since the fourteenth century, and beneath it lie the remains of the Roman basilica and forum, the largest north of the Alps, part of which survives in a barber's shop basement nearby. The present building is Horace Jones's of 1881, the same architect who did Billingsgate and Smithfield: a cross of glass-roofed avenues on cast iron painted in dark green, maroon and gold, with cobbled floors and shopfronts under the arcades. It was traditionally a poultry and game market and a few food traders remain, but the tenancies are now mostly bars, restaurants and shops serving City workers, which means it is busy at lunchtime and after work on weekdays and near-empty at weekends. It stood in for Diagon Alley in the first Harry Potter film.

What you actually see

• The Jones ironwork - an 1881 glass-roofed arcade in green, maroon and gold.
• The cobbled avenues - a cross-shaped plan under the painted roof.
• The Roman layer - the forum and basilica site beneath the market.
• The Diagon Alley connection - the arcade used in the first Potter film.

When to go

Weekday lunchtimes and early evenings for the market working as it does, or weekend mornings for photographs of empty arcades. It is a covered street rather than a scheduled attraction and is always accessible on foot.

Honest expectations

Almost all tenancies now serve City office workers rather than selling food, so it is a bar and restaurant arcade with a market shell. It is dead at weekends, when most units are shut. The visit takes twenty minutes.

Nearby

The Lloyd's building and the Gherkin are alongside; the Monument and Sky Garden are minutes away.