Greggs 24 Hour Stores UK

The 24-hour list, verified

I can’t find a 24-hour Greggs on any high street. The all-night shops are in airports, where passengers turn up at every hour. Six are confirmed. Five of the airports list their own Greggs as open round the clock, and Gatwick’s 24-hour status comes from Greggs itself:

Gatwick was the last to join. It was Greggs’ eighth airport shop and its first in London. Greggs also trades at Liverpool and Cardiff airports, but I haven’t found 24-hour hours listed for either, so they’re not on the list.

Forecourt pods and drive-thru trials

Away from airports, the 24-hour picture is patchy and mostly small-format shops. This is what I could confirm:

• Moto Rugby (M6, J1): when the services opened in 2021, Greggs said it had opened two shops there, a 48-seat shop in the main building and a 24-hour shop in the petrol forecourt.
• Welcome Break Darrington (A1 southbound): Wakefield Council approved a 24-hour pod bakery in September 2025. I couldn’t confirm that it’s trading yet.
• 24-hour drive-thrus: Greggs said in March 2023 that it would trial one, alongside more shops open past 9pm. It hasn’t published a list of trial sites. Local press billed the 2018 Ashby-de-la-Zouch drive-thru as a 24-hour one, but I couldn’t confirm round-the-clock trading there today.

Forecourt hours can change, so treat these as leads rather than guarantees and check the shop page on greggs.com first. Our drive-through guide lists the confirmed sites.

Latest closing times

If nothing on the high street is open all night, which shops stay open latest? Three cases come up again and again.

Leicester Square

Greggs’ flagship opened on 18 July 2022 and applied to sell hot food and drink 24 hours a day. Westminster’s licensing sub-committee refused, and the Metropolitan Police had opposed the application over crime and disorder. Greggs appealed, then dropped the case in May 2023 after agreeing a deal. The shop can now sell hot drinks and reheated bakes such as sausage rolls and pasties until midnight Sunday to Wednesday and 2am Thursday to Saturday. Hot-food-menu items like pizza, goujons and hot baguettes stop at 11pm, and the licence requires door staff, CCTV and litter clearing.

London Bridge station

A Greggs unit at London Bridge Station holds a Southwark premises licence, granted on 1 March 2024, that allows 24-hour opening and late-night refreshment from 11pm to 5am. Actual trading is shorter. When I checked, Greggs’ listing for one shop there ran from 5:30am to 1am, Monday to Saturday, which is the latest regular close I found outside the airports.

Drive-thrus

Greggs now runs over 50 drive-thrus. Most open around 6am and close between 8pm and 11pm, a few hours after the nearest high-street shop has sold out. The Winchester Easton Lane drive-thru, for example, shows 6am to 8pm Tuesday to Friday.

In July 2023 Greggs also applied for 24-hour licences in Canterbury and Liverpool. I couldn’t find a confirmed outcome for either, so I haven’t counted them.

Real opening hours by store type

Once you know where a Greggs sits, its hours become fairly predictable. The ranges below come from Greggs’ own shop listings for sample shops in each format, and they line up with our full opening times guide:

Samples include Moto Stafford North (5am–7pm), Moto Knutsford North (5am–8pm), Newcastle’s Northumberland Street (6:30am–8:30pm) and the London Bridge station shops. Any single shop can differ.

The late Sunday start isn’t the law. The Sunday Trading Act 1994 only limits shops over 280 square metres in England and Wales, and Greggs shops are much smaller. Even the Gatwick shop, at twice the size of a typical Greggs, is only 1,600 square feet, about 150 square metres. The Sunday hours are a commercial choice.

Breakfast, dinner and the 11am rule

Breakfast ends at 11am. Start times change by store type: around 6am at city and commuter shops, 6:30am to 7am on most high streets, later on Sundays, and from 5am at motorway services. A bacon roll at 4am from an airport shop is breakfast. After 11am you’re on the lunch menu. Transport hubs and small-format shops can differ slightly, so check the app. Our breakfast times guide has the day-by-day detail.

The evening menu is the other half of a late visit. Many shops switch to hot food from 4pm, with pizza slices, chicken goujons and hot desserts. On our deals page, the pizza slice and drink deal drops to £2.85 after 4pm (£3.50 before), though motorway franchises are excluded. The dinner at Greggs guide covers what’s on offer and when.

Sundays, bank holidays and Christmas

Sundays run shorter hours, as the table above shows. On Boxing Day, shops typically trade from 9am to 5pm. Christmas Day is the one that catches people out: Greggs shuts every shop on 25 December, motorway services and airports included, according to our opening times guide. If you’re flying home on Christmas morning, the Gatwick listing won’t save you, so check the app before you set off.

How to check any Greggs’ hours in 60 seconds

1. The shop finder on greggs.com. Search by postcode and the shop page shows the full weekly timetable, plus an “Open late” label when it applies.
2. The Greggs app. It shows live hours and has click and collect, which helps when you’re already on your way.
3. Google Maps. It’s quick and usually right, but it can lag a day or two behind bank holiday changes.
4. Just Eat or Uber Eats. If your branch shows as open there, it’s trading, which makes it a good late-evening double-check.
5. Our Is Greggs open today? checker for heatwave and closure news.

For airport shops, remember that terminal operators can still change concession hours around flight schedules, even at a shop listed as 24-hour.

Why high-street shops can’t just go 24/7

People assume it’s stubbornness. It’s mostly licensing and logistics.

• Licensing. Under the Licensing Act 2003, selling hot food or hot drinks between 11pm and 5am counts as late-night refreshment and needs a premises licence from the council. Cold items don’t, but the hot counter is the point of a late-night Greggs. Westminster refused Leicester Square on crime and disorder grounds, and the Met backed the council.
• The bake-off rhythm. Most of the range arrives from regional bakeries and is baked off in the shop through the day. Overnight there’s little fresh stock to sell, and running ovens for a handful of customers doesn’t pay.
• Waste. Greggs redistributed 45% of its unsold food in 2024 through Outlet shops, charity partners and Too Good To Go, and sent the rest to anaerobic digestion, according to its own figures. Longer hours mean more surplus to manage.
• Staffing and safety. Leicester Square’s licence conditions give a flavour: door supervisors, CCTV and litter clearing. At an airport that cost is covered by footfall that never stops. On a high street at 3am, it isn’t.

What night owls pay at travel hubs

Airport and motorway shops sit in our Franchise/Airports pricing tier, so the same sausage roll costs more. These are the three tiers from our full menu price list:

City and London shops run about 10 to 15% above standard on these items, and the Franchise/Airports tier runs roughly 30 to 35% above. Make it a proper order and the gap shows: two bacon breakfast rolls and two flat whites come to £9.20 at standard prices, £10.40 in a city or London shop and £12.10 in the Franchise/Airports tier. Eat in and you’ll add 20% VAT on top, so takeaway is the cheaper call. Our Greggs franchise model guide explains how franchised sites work, and the price finder tool shows any item in all three tiers.

Shut now? Your 1am alternatives

• The freezer aisle. Tesco listed five Greggs Bake at Home lines in over 800 stores, and Iceland carries around 15. Cook them from frozen in the oven or air fryer, and check the box price in store.
• Too Good To Go. Greggs works with the app across more than 2,000 shops, and Surprise Bags typically cost about a third of the retail value. You collect near closing time, so it suits evenings better than 1am.
• Greggs Outlet shops. There are now more than 40, and they sell surplus food at around half the usual price. Daytime only, but good value.
• Delivery. If Just Eat or Uber Eats shows your branch as open, it can deliver until the shop closes.
• A drive-thru. The late-evening close at many sites is 8pm to 11pm, later than most high-street shops.

Where the facts come from

Airport details come from each airport’s own Greggs page, linked in the table above, and Gatwick’s from Greggs’ announcement. Leicester Square details come from press coverage of the May 2023 agreement and Law Gazette reports on the licence. London Bridge details come from Southwark Council’s licensing register and Greggs’ shop listings. Prices come from our own menu price list, which records Standard, City & London and Franchise/Airports rates. Hours can change at short notice, so treat the Greggs app as the final word.

FAQs