IJ-Hallen flea market

A shipyard full of second-hand

Once a month, the old shipbuilding halls on the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam Noord fill with stalls. IJ-Hallen is a flea market on a scale the city has nowhere else: hundreds of stands of furniture, clothes, records, lamps, books, toys and things nobody can name, under the steel roof of halls where ships were once built. The market calls itself the biggest flea market in Europe.

Most stalls are run by ordinary Amsterdammers clearing out their attic, next to a smaller number of dealers. That is what makes it good: prices are low, and what you find is a matter of luck.

How it works

The market runs on a Saturday and Sunday, roughly once a month, and the dates change every year, so check the market's own calendar before you go. There is a small entrance fee. In the warmer months the market spills out of the halls onto the quay, so there is even more to see.

Making a day of it

Get there by the free ferry from behind Centraal Station: the crossing to NDSM is part of the fun. Around the halls is the rest of the old wharf, with its cranes, street art and cafés on the water, and the STRAAT street art museum is a few minutes' walk away.