The UK’s 10 best high streets for independent shopping for Christmas 2024

Getting all your Christmas shopping done online or in a ginormous shopping centre might be the easiest way to go about it – but what if you prefer to take your time with festive gift-buying? Well, you could head to a Christmas market, obvs. Or you could take a trip down to one of the UK’s best high streets for independent shops.  

A new ranking by American Express has crowned the UK’s top 10 high streets for Christmas shopping. AmEx partnered with retail experts GlobalData to identify streets with the most indie shops, the widest variety, the most ‘vibrancy’ and the highest number of millennial and gen-z business owners. In the same list last year AmEx named Edinburgh’s Victoria Street & West Bow the nation’s best indie shopping street.

For 2024 AmEx has crowned St Mary’s Street in Stamford, Lincolnshire, the best in Britain for independent shopping. St Mary’s Street apparently ‘[scored] highly across the factors and [delivers] a unique experience for shoppers’.

Second in the list came Sheffield’s combined Division Street and Devonshire Street, while third came Gloucester Road in Bristol.

Here are American Express’s 10 best high streets for independent shopping this Christmas.

1. St Mary’s Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire
2. Devonshire Street / Division Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire
3. Gloucester Road, Bristol
4. Market Street / Bridge Gate, Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire
5. Stoke Newington Church Street, Hackney, London
6. High Street, Narberth, Pembrokeshire
7. Oldham Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester
8. Bailgate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire
9. Byres Road, Glasgow
10. The Lanes, Norwich, Norfolk

Revealed: the best UK Christmas market in 2024 according to TikTok and Instagram.

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