Leadenhall vs Spitalfield's Market

Visit both.

The door to the Leaky Caldron is in Leadenhall. Great food and vendors in Spitalifields. Often get one of kind Christmas cards at Spitalifields if I visit in November.

As far as a lunch recommendation i throughly enjoyed the Kebab I got from a vendor in Spitalfields.

I’m old enough to recall when the neighborhood around Spitalfields was edgy. Been interesting to watch the gentrication.

Thanks, Claudia. How do I find the door to Leaky Cauldron? Yes, I'm leaning towards doing both because what they heck, they're free! I've got reminders set up so I can get on the reservations as soon as they're available.

Yes, visit both.
I know nothing of the Leaky Cauldron door but Ms. Google says 42 Bulls Head Passage in Leadenhall. An opticians with a blue door!

Tough choice, but I love Leadenhall Market.
The Lamb Tavern is my favorite of the restaurants.
https://leadenhallmarket.co.uk/eat-and-drink/
The map on this page may help you find Leadenhall Market, on Gracechurch Street.
https://leadenhallmarket.co.uk/

This area is a warren of short medieval streets, so enjoy seeing the quirky little shops and pubs you find while trying to get there.
Next door to Leadenhall Market is the office building of Lloyd's Of London.
If you see a building that looks like stacked tin cans and pipes, you've found Lloyd's.

Leadenhall Market is a beautiful old Victorian-style covered market built in 1881.
There has been a market on this site since the 1400's.
There are plenty of shops and restaurants to browse here.
Look for the carved dragons atop many of the columns here.

The London Walks company has a Harry Potter walking tour that brings you here, as well as to other locations.

I just took the Harry Potter walk with London Walks yesterday, with the fabulous Andrew as tour guide. The Leaky Cauldron is now the London Migraine Clinic.

Leadenhall Market is lovely. I had seen it many times from a bus speeding past, but I think it was only my second time walking around the market.

Spitalfields is also wonderful, and Dennis Severs' house is quite an experience. Highly recommended.

SJS and Laura- Thanks for helping me find the Leaky Cauldron. I had walked around Leadenhall once before but it was a Sunday so pretty much everything was closed. I did the Harry Potter Tour for Muggles last time I was in London but we did not go to Leadenhall so did not know about the Leaky Cauldron.

Rebecca- I was looking at the restaurants on the Leadenhall Market website and the Lamb Tavern stood out. I'm not a big fan of lamb and my friend is kind of picky so looking at the menu, there are lots of other choices. We'll probably decide what we feel like eating the day we visit. Thanks for all the info on the market!

Spitalfields Market is an actual market with stalls etc., whereas Leadenhall is a market building which has been converted to other uses. It's easy to see both as they're within 5 or 10 minutes walk of each other.

Spitalfields Market is more fun. Lots of stalls with vintage clothing, and independent designers selling their own wares, small jewellery makers, records and food to eat on the go. A friend of mine had a stall there for a while a few years ago selling vintage cameras, lenses etc. The biggest number of stallholders and customers will be out on a Saturday and Sunday, but it's open daily.

Leadenhall Market, as you'll know, is very pretty to look at. It's quite ornate and totally worth seeing. As you also discovered, it will be quieter at the weekend as it caters mainly to those working in financial services and markets Monday to Friday. Lunchtimes and evenings are busy with people getting a lunchtime drink or drinking after work. As a small point, the Lamb Tavern probably has nothing to do with them actually serving lamb. Traditional pub names often include an animal or bird.

As Laura said above, Dennis Severs House is worth visiting, though the streets around that area contain some of the best preserved examples of early 18th century housing that one can see from just walking around. If you're lucky, you may bump into a national treasure, Gilbert and George, who live and work in a house in Fournier Street.

As far as Horizon 22 and Sky Garden go, I wrote a few paragraphs for the forum when I visited Horizon 22 in December. Sky Garden is definitely more of destination if you're planning to have something to eat or a beverage, though it didn't strike me as somewhere I'd head to, given the other options in London, or even The City. It was quite some years ago I visited The Sky Garden though. There's another viewing platform called The Lookout, also in the Bishopsgate / Gracechurch Street area.

I stand corrected on the Lamb Tavern btw, upon reading their website. It is a reference to Leadenhall's original usage as a livestock market, and they do actually specialise in lamb. :) My point still stands about pub names though!