Spanish City's market runs 20 to 22 November, £3 booked online against £5 on the door. North Shields follows on 5 and 6 December, free, with roads closed.

Whitley Bay’s Christmas market is at Spanish City from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 November 2026, and buying online rather than on the door cuts the price by almost half. Advance entry is £3, on the door it is £5. A group ticket for four is £10 in advance and £15 on the door.

Advance tickets close at 5pm the day before the day you are visiting, so the saving disappears at teatime rather than at midnight. All of this is on Spanish City’s own Christmas Market page.

Opening times

The Friday is the long day and the odd one out. It opens after lunch and runs into the evening, while the weekend is a standard 10 to 5.

  • Friday 20 November: 12pm to 8pm
  • Saturday 21 November: 10am to 5pm
  • Sunday 22 November: 10am to 5pm

Spanish City describes the stalls as hand-crafted gifts, with festive food and sweets to eat as you shop. It also sells a combined ticket: a festive afternoon tea with free market entry, £33. Children must be accompanied by an adult, and all payments are non-refundable and non-transferable.

If you want to trade there rather than shop, the venue takes stallholder applications by email to events@spanishcity.co.uk.

Parking at Spanish City

The council’s own Spanish City Car Park record gives 97 standard bays and 8 disabled bays, charges of £1.20 for an hour rising to £4.80 for all day, and a charging period of 10am to 6pm every day. Blue Badge holders and motorcycles are free. Card and mobile payments only, zone code 5870.

The council also warns on that record that the privately run car park next door charges all users, including Blue Badge holders. On the Friday, when the market runs to 8pm, the council car park’s charges stop at 6pm.

Two free car parks sit a short walk along the seafront, and neither is free of conditions. Waves has a 2 hour maximum stay with no return the same day, and the council records that as running 9am to 6pm, so it bites for the whole of the Saturday and Sunday market. Brierdene allows 4 hours, but that applies at all times, so it covers a market visit where Waves does not. See our parking in Whitley Bay page for the full picture.

The free one, two weeks later in North Shields

The bigger market in the borough is on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December 2026 at Northumberland Square and Howard Street, and it costs nothing to get in. The council counts around 70 stalls, with street food, bars, mulled wine and fairground rides around the square.

It also shuts a good deal of North Shields town centre for the best part of a week. Last year’s traffic order closed Northumberland Place and Northumberland Square from 6am on the Wednesday before until 5pm on the Monday after, which took out the metered bays on Northumberland Place along with the through route. The 2026 order has not been made yet.

Full detail, times and the closure pattern are on our North Shields Christmas Market page, and anything made official will show up on our roadworks and travel page.

Tynemouth Station Market, every weekend

The one that runs all year is at Tynemouth Station, NE30 4RE, straight off the Metro platform. The council counts over 150 stalls in the restored Victorian station every weekend, and it gets noticeably busier through December. There is no entry charge and no ticket.

For the rest of the season, see our Christmas lights switch-on page for the Spanish City tree on 15 November, and the Playhouse pantomime from 4 December.