Chester Christmas Market

Chester arranges around 80 traders in Town Hall Square on Northgate Street, wrapped around the city Christmas tree with the Victorian Gothic town hall on one side and the cathedral on the other. It is a compact market in a city that is unusually well suited to one.

What is on the stalls

The emphasis is on handmade and locally produced: crafts, jewellery, accessories, gifts, and seasonal food and drink, with a strong representation from Cheshire and North Wales producers. Eighty traders is small enough to see everything properly without the route-march quality of Manchester or Birmingham.

The city is half the reason

Chester has the most complete set of Roman and medieval walls in Britain, and you can walk the full circuit in about an hour. The Rows — the two-tier medieval galleried shopping streets found nowhere else — are a few steps from the market and are lit through December. The cathedral runs a substantial Advent programme and its own Christmas tree festival.

Getting there

Chester station is about fifteen minutes’ walk from Town Hall Square, or a short bus ride. There are direct trains from Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and North Wales, and the city is compact enough that you will not need transport once you arrive.

When to go

Thursday to Saturday it stays open until eight, which is when the tree and the town hall are lit and the market looks its best; Sunday to Wednesday it closes at 6.30pm. Weekends in December are busy with shoppers regardless of the market, so a weekday evening is the pick.

Worth knowing

It runs 18 November to 22 December 2026. Chester is an easy add-on to Liverpool or Manchester by train if you are doing a North West market trip — all three are within an hour of each other.

A North West market trip

Chester, Liverpool and Manchester are each within an hour of one another by train, and their markets are different enough to be worth doing as a trio rather than picking one. Chester is the small, craft-led, walkable one; Liverpool is the mid-sized one with the best single backdrop; Manchester is the sprawling, drink-led giant. Doing all three across a weekend is entirely practical without a car.

Beyond the stalls

The cathedral’s Christmas tree festival and Advent programme run alongside the market, and the walls walk is genuinely worth doing in winter light. Chester Zoo, which mounts a large lantern-lit Christmas event, is twenty minutes out of the centre by bus and is a substantial day in its own right.