Practical
Is there a 24-hour supermarket in London?
Mostly, no longer. A few individual branches still trade overnight, the law shuts the big stores at weekends anyway, and the real answer at 3am is a petrol forecourt.
Short answer: far fewer than you think, and not at the weekend.
The 24-hour supermarket was a normal part of British life until 2020. Most chains cut overnight trading during the pandemic and never brought it back. What survived is a much smaller and stranger picture than people expect.
The chains
No chain can be relied on for this any more. Round-the-clock trading at large superstores was largely wound back and has not come back. A handful of individual branches still run 24 hours; many run long hours instead, to midnight or 1am, which is not the same thing and is what catches people out at 2am.
We are not going to name a chain here. We could not find a source we are willing to cite for which chains currently trade overnight, at which branches, as of this month — and a brand name is exactly the kind of claim that sends someone walking across London at 2am. Check the individual store’s own page instead. That is the only answer that survives contact with reality.
The branch, not the brand. A chain being "24 hour" tells you nothing about the shop you are walking to. Check that specific store's page. This is the single most common mistake in every "open 24 hours" claim in London.
The weekend catch that nobody expects
Even a genuinely 24-hour superstore cannot trade through Saturday night into Sunday.
This is not a business decision. It is the Sunday Trading Act: a shop whose sales area is over 280 square metres may open for only six continuous hours on a Sunday, between 10am and 6pm. Sunday begins at midnight, so the shutters come down.
So the pattern is:
| When | A 24-hour superstore |
|---|---|
| Monday–Friday, overnight | Open |
| Saturday night into Sunday | Closed at midnight |
| Sunday | Six hours only, between 10am and 6pm |
| Sunday evening into Monday | Often reopens late Sunday |
| Christmas Day | Closed by law |
| Easter Sunday | Closed by law |
Full explanation of the rule, including the exemptions, is in why the big supermarket shuts at 4pm on a Sunday.
What is actually open at 3am
This is the useful part, and the answer is not a supermarket.
Petrol station forecourts. The most dependable overnight shop in London, by a distance. Small enough to be exempt from Sunday trading rules, open every night, and they carry far more than fuel — food, drink, painkillers, phone chargers, nappies, basic toiletries. Supermarket-branded forecourts often carry a decent own-brand range.
Convenience-format stores. The small high-street versions of the big chains. 280 m² or under, so no Sunday restrictions at all, and a fair number run very late or overnight in busy areas.
Corner shops. In central and inner London, plenty trade to 2am or later, and some never close.
Large railway stations. Shops inside major stations are exempt from Sunday trading law. On a Sunday evening, a big terminus is frequently the best shopping available in London.
24-hour off licences. They exist, concentrated in the busier boroughs. Whether they are open is licence-specific and varies street by street.
Getting there
If you are heading out at 3am, the transport question matters as much as the shop. Night buses run every night; the Tube mostly does not. See getting home after the last train and which Tube lines run at night.
Our what is open right now page works this out from the current London time and day, including the Sunday rule.
Before you set off
- Check the specific branch page, never the brand page.
- Ring if it matters. Listed hours rot. A phone that goes unanswered at 1am answers the question.
- Remember the day. The same store has four different behaviours across a week, and three of them are legal requirements rather than choices.
- Default to a forecourt if you just need something basic. It is almost always open, and almost always closer than you think.
Sources
- House of Commons Library — shop opening hours and Sunday trading
- Association of Convenience Stores — trading hours
- Chain-level overnight trading: no citable source found. An earlier version of this page named a single chain as the last one trading 24 hours, sourced only to “UK retail coverage”. That did not meet our own standard and has been removed. See corrections.
Checked 11 September 2026, chains section rechecked 17 September 2026. Individual stores set their own hours within the law, and chains change policy — always confirm the branch.