Brighton's antiques and vintage weekend guide

If you are in Brighton this weekend, the city centre is handing over to a massive antiques and vintage market, with hundreds of stalls and a family-friendly atmosphere. It is the sort of thing that works as a Saturday or Sunday plan without costing much, and it sits alongside a city that keeps its vintage habit going all year round.

For a proper browse, the Upper Gardner Street Saturday Market is the place to start. It is a weekly outdoor flea and antiques market that closes the road to traffic from 7am to 5pm, and it is one of the older traditions in town: barrowmen have been trading on Gardner Street and Bond Street since the 1890s. You will find antiques, bric-a-brac, second-hand clothes, records, books, jewellery and tools, with a few food stalls thrown in. A word on the rhythm of the place: sellers start packing up around midday, and the real offers tend to come in around 3pm. The buildings around it date back to the early 1800s, with some cottages from 1828, a home from 1826 and a school built in 1887.

If you want to keep browsing indoors, Snoopers Paradise in the North Laine is the obvious next stop. It grew out of an old furniture shop and now holds around 90 second-hand stalls selling vintage clothes, old records, ornaments, taxidermy, mirrors and lamps, with Snoopers Attic upstairs as a makers and vintage collective. It is open every day, with slightly shorter hours on Sundays, and this weekend it has a Halloween event running: The Haunted Objects of Snoopers Paradise, which hides a collection of vintage objects among the thousands of treasures. Over in Kemptown, the Brighton Flea Market is a permanent indoor market at 31A Upper St James's Street, instantly recognisable by its pink building. It is split across two floors with numbered vendor cabinets and runs seven days a week, with everything from vintage jewellery and ceramics to old photo albums, 1970s bookcases and dentists' equipment. Established traders take card, but cash is preferred and bargaining is common.

For something a bit different, the Brighton Marina Car Boot Sale is the oldest of the lot, running for over 30 years from 6am to 2pm on Sundays at the Marina car park, Level 9. It is free for buyers, sellers pay a flat fee of about £12, and there is a food truck and toilets on site. The best tip there is to arrive before 10am. And if you are after a proper fair, the Brighton Racecourse Antiques and Vintage Fair, run by Love Fairs, is back on 29 November with over 120 indoor sellers, entry at £5 and free admission for children under 16 and dogs on short leads.

Between the two, a weekend of it is easy to piece together: Saturday on Upper Gardner Street, a wander through Snoopers Paradise and the Flea Market, and Sunday down at the Marina. It is a cheap way to fill a day or two, and it gives you a good sense of why Brighton has become such a hub for all things old and second-hand.