Every Saturday the grounds of the sandstone St Andrew's Church on Darling Street fill with the stalls of the Balmain Market, a neighbourhood institution running since the 1970s. It is a browsing market rather than a produce one — handmade jewellery and ceramics, secondhand books and records, plants, clothing and bric-a-brac — with a cluster of food stalls inside the church hall, including a long-standing Indonesian kitchen that locals swear by.
It has the relaxed, slightly bohemian feel that suits Balmain, and pairs naturally with a wander up Darling Street and a pub lunch afterwards. Mornings are best, before the crowds thin in the early afternoon.