Holesovice, Prague: Galleries, Lager Bars and Brunch in the City's Creative District

Brunch at Vnitroblock

Holešovice is about ten minutes from the centre by tram, and one day is enough to see it properly. Start in the courtyard, which is free to walk into and open daily from 9:00 to 22:00.

Under the one roof there's the café and restaurant, the D&B Gallery, a shop full of designer sneakers, a small cinema and the Polepšovna pub. The alley in from Dělnická adds a distillery, a barbershop and a clothes shop. Breakfast is 9:00 to 11:00 on weekdays and until 15:00 at weekends, so a slow brunch only works on Saturday or Sunday. Lunch runs to 15:00, then dinner from 16:00 to 21:00. Trams stop at Tusarova and Dělnická, and there's an entrance on each side. Dogs are welcome.

Saturday markets

If your day falls on a Saturday, go early to Farmářské tržiště Náplavka, the market strung out along Rašínovo nábřeží on the Vltava embankment. It's free to walk around and runs 8:00 to 14:00, with the castle across the water while you eat. Stalls sell cheese, bread, honey and wine, with coffee and hot food to eat on the spot. Saturday dates run until 19 December. Prague 7 has a smaller version of the same market at Heřmaňák on Řezáčovo náměstí, also 8:00 to 14:00.

DOX and the rooftop airship

DOX Centre for Contemporary Art is on Poupětova, five minutes' walk from Nádraží Holešovice on metro line C. A white angular block has been grafted onto the old factory buildings. On the roof sits the Gulliver Airship, a vast wooden-ribbed hull you walk inside. The airship is the one part of the building that isn't barrier-free.

Adults pay 360 Kč. Children aged 7 to 15 pay 150 Kč, and under-sevens go free. One ticket covers every show that's hanging. This winter that means ANDROS, on the male body in art, until 24 January 2027. Argus & Medusa, on hope in dark times, runs until 4 April 2027. A Vladimír Kokolia show opens on 27 November. Doors are 11:00 to 19:00 from Tuesday to Sunday, with the last tickets sold half an hour before closing. It's closed on Mondays.

Circus in the old market halls

Jatka78 works out of halls 7 and 8 of the Holešovice market on Bubenské nábřeží, which were a working slaughterhouse until 1983. The aerial rigging hangs from the old riveted roof trusses. The programme is contemporary circus, dance, physical theatre and cabaret, so nothing depends on your Czech.

Most shows this season run 200 to 1,780 Kč. The cabaret FoolMoon plays from 7 to 30 December, and the New Year's Eve performance is 2,490 to 2,790 Kč. Buy before you travel, as the popular dates sell out. The Bublina bar does boards of Italian cured meats and cheese with wine beforehand, though you can't carry food or drink into the auditorium. Trams stop at Holešovická tržnice, and Vltavská metro station is nearby.

Cross Club after dark

Cross Club is a tall yellow building on Plynární with an enormous welded sculpture of cogs and scrap metal outside. Inside, the passages are a steel labyrinth built from recycled machine parts. The café and bar open at 14:00, so you can see the rooms without committing to a club night. The club runs from 18:00 to 05:00, and until 07:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Weekday nights are usually free, and tickets are around 250 Kč when there's a charge. The music is drum and bass, techno, psytrance and rap, with the odd live metal or poetry night. If you want a polished cocktail bar, skip it, because the grime here is the design.

Beer on Letná and in Karlín

Letenský zámeček stands in Letenské sady, a hilltop park in Prague 7. A gravel beer garden of long trestle benches sits in front of the cream pavilion. Lanterns hang between the mature trees. The Vltava bridges and the Old Town spires are below you. The garden runs roughly April to October, so from November to March you're in the restaurant with a window instead. That side is open daily 11:00 to 23:00.

For beer brewed in the room where you drink it, go to Dva kohouti on Sokolovská in Karlín. The polished tanks stand among the tables, and a glass is 64 to 84 Kč, from Czech lagers to IPAs. They don't take reservations, and there's always room to stand or sit. There's no kitchen, but you can order from Bufet across the courtyard and bring it back to your table. It opens at 15:00 on weekdays and midday at weekends, closing at 01:00 (22:00 on Sunday). The entrance is tucked in a courtyard and easy to walk straight past.

Before you go

DOX is shut on Mondays, and the good Jatka78 dates go early, so settle those two before you travel. Nothing else here needs booking. See the Prague guide and the Prague hotel search.