Afrikan Market Leeds: Christmas shopping in Chapeltown on 21 November and 12 December 2026

Each One, Reach One, Teach One.

Unity Does MAATer, the market's motto

The Afrikan Market Leeds has two Saturdays left this year, both in the run-up to Christmas: Saturday 21 November and Saturday 12 December 2026, at the Leeds Caribbean & African Centre, 10 Laycock Place, in Chapeltown. Entry is free. Independent traders sell African and Caribbean food, fashion, beauty products, art and handmade gifts, and it is run by the local community group Unity Does MAATer.

More than a market

What sets this market apart is that you can leave with a new skill as well as a bag of presents. Alongside the stalls, the organisers have offered short sessions where visitors make a natural product of their own in about 20 minutes, plus talks on health and on handling money. It is a market built to teach as much as to sell.

Unity Does MAATer says it has worked in Chapeltown since March 2015. Its members live locally, and they describe their aim as bringing back the idea that it takes a village to raise a child, with work on healthy eating, money, culture and values. The market began in November 2021, its listing says, and now runs six times a year; its November and December dates fall in the run-up to Christmas. In June it even took a stall line-up to Meanwood Urban Valley Farm as part of the Leeds International African Arts Festival.

What you can buy

• Clothes, fabrics and accessories
• Natural creams, skincare and crystals
• Jewellery, candles and mugs
• Books and art
• African and Caribbean food, cakes and rum punch

Stalls change from one market to the next, so treat the list as a taste of past editions rather than a promise.

The venue and getting there

The Leeds Caribbean & African Centre, long known as the Leeds West Indian Centre, has been a gathering place in Chapeltown since the early 1980s and today serves both the Caribbean and African communities. It sits in the neighbourhood that hosts the Leeds West Indian Carnival every August. Chapeltown is about a mile north of the city centre; First Leeds buses 2, 3 and 3A and the Harrogate Bus Company's 36 run along Chapeltown Road. Listings give the postcode as LS7 8AJ, though an older one uses LS7 3JA, so search for 10 Laycock Place if your map disagrees.

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Tips: both dates fall on a Saturday, so get there early if you want the pick of the food, and look at the market's Instagram the week before in case a time has changed.