Why go
Albert Market is where Banjul actually does its shopping, and it has been doing so for a long time: the market was built in the mid-nineteenth century and named, like so much else from that period, after Albert, Prince Consort, the husband of Queen Victoria, whose government ran the Gambia as a colony at the time. More than a century and a half later it is still the city’s main trading hub, spread across several blocks just off Liberation Avenue, close to the old quay. It is noisy, dense and entirely unstaged for visitors, which is exactly why it is worth the walk.
What you will see
The market is less a single building than a knot of covered lanes and open stalls that spill into the surrounding streets. Fabric sellers and tailors work alongside stalls piled with dried and smoked fish, fresh produce, household goods and imported clothing, and the trade runs on through the day rather than around set hours. Fires have hit parts of the market before — a blaze in September 2014 tore through a large section of the main structure and destroyed stock including freshly imported clothing and shoes — and the rebuilt sections sit alongside older ones, so the market has a patchwork, lived-in feel rather than a planned layout.
Visiting
No official source publishes set opening hours or an entrance fee for Albert Market — it is a working market rather than a ticketed attraction, open to walk through at any time, busiest on weekday mornings and quieter on Sundays. Bargaining is expected if you buy anything, and it is worth agreeing a price before you commit rather than after.
Getting there
The market sits just off Independence Drive in the old colonial grid, a short walk from Arch 22 at the entrance to the city and from the waterfront and old quay. Most visitors come in on a half-day trip from the coast hotels; the getting around guide covers shared taxis and minibuses from Kotu, Bakau and Senegambia, and Banjul International Airport at Yundum on the mainland is the arrival point for almost everyone flying in.
Nearby
The colonial quarter and the State House are a short walk from the market along the same stretch of Independence Drive, and Arch 22 marks the start of that walk coming in from the mainland. The Banjul city page covers the rest of what to see on the island.