Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December in Northumberland Square, free entry, about 70 stalls and rides. Where to park free, and the roads shut from 2 to 7 December.

North Shields Christmas Market is on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December 2026, in Northumberland Square and Howard Street in the town centre. Entry is free. North Tyneside Council, which runs it, has the weekend listed with those dates.

Updated 25 October: the council has now made the road order (dated 23 October). It is tighter than the 16 October notice: all vehicles except emergency vehicles are banned from Northumberland Place and Northumberland Square, not just through traffic. Dates and times are unchanged.

Updated 18 October: the council has published the 2026 road closure order. Northumberland Square, Northumberland Place and the Howard Street junctions shut to through traffic from 6am on Wednesday 2 December to 5pm on Monday 7 December.

The council says there will be around 70 stalls selling festive gifts, crafts, food and drink, with fairground rides around the square.

What is confirmed

From the council’s own listing:

  • Around 70 stalls, gifts, crafts, food and drink
  • Local churches and the Salvation Army open the market at 10am on the Saturday with a short service
  • Choirs and schoolchildren perform through the weekend
  • Street food traders and bars, including mulled wine
  • Fairground rides around the square
  • Free entry, both days

What is not confirmed yet

Closing times. The council’s listing gives the two dates but leaves the daily hours blank, and the only clock time it publishes is the 10am opening service on the Saturday. Do not plan a late Sunday afternoon visit on the assumption it runs to 5pm until the times are out.

The entertainment programme. The council’s page ends with “More news on the full entertainment programme soon”, so the line-up of choirs, schools and performance times has not been published. That normally lands in November. We will update this page when it does.

Stall traders. No trader list has been published.

Parking, and the two streets that are the market

The market takes over streets that are ordinarily parking bays, so two of the council’s own listed spaces are inside the footprint that weekend: Northumberland Place, six spaces at 2p a minute, and Howard Street south section, 45 spaces at 50p an hour. Assume neither is usable on 5 and 6 December.

The nearby off-street options are better anyway, and both are free at a weekend:

  • King Street Car Park, NE30 1AG, 39 spaces, free all days, 3.5 tonne weight limit
  • Norfolk Street Car Park, NE30 1NQ, 66 spaces plus four EV bays, free, and its two-hour maximum stay only applies Monday to Friday, so a weekend visit is unrestricted

Both are a few minutes’ walk from Northumberland Square. Cars and light vans only at Norfolk Street.

Coming from the coast, our Whitley Bay parking page covers the seafront tariffs, and our roadworks and travel page carries anything closed between here and North Shields.

Getting there by Metro

North Shields Metro station is a short walk from Northumberland Square, which is the easiest way in on a market weekend. Our Metro times page has the service pattern for the coast line.

Road closures

The 2026 order has been made. The council gave notice on 16 October that it intended to close most of the town centre around the market, and on 23 October it published the order itself. The made order bans all vehicles except emergency vehicles, where the notice spoke only of through traffic. The market is a weekend, the closure is most of a week:

  • Northumberland Place and Northumberland Square, from the Church Way junction to the Upper Norfolk Street junction, closed to all vehicles bar emergency vehicles from 6am on Wednesday 2 December until 5pm on Monday 7 December.
  • Howard Street at its junctions with Upper Norfolk Street and Saville Street, closed from Wednesday 2 to Monday 7 December.
  • Upper Camden Street at Northumberland Square, closed to vehicles on Wednesday 2 and Monday 7 December only.
  • Diversion via Church Way, Albion Road, Upper Norfolk Street and Norfolk Street.

That takes the metered bays on Northumberland Place out for the week as well. The council names Tom Wilson on 0191 643 7417 for questions about the order. Closures also go on our roadworks and travel page.

The other market that runs every weekend

If you are looking for stalls before December, Tynemouth Station Market runs every weekend of the year in the restored Victorian station, with the council citing over 150 stalls. Tynemouth Metro drops you at the door. It is a separate thing from the Christmas market and needs no ticket.

Whitley Bay has its own, earlier and indoors: the Spanish City Christmas Market runs from 20 to 22 November and is the one event here that charges to get in.

Details on this page come from North Tyneside Council’s own event listing and its find-parking records, checked on 3 September 2026.