A new Sunday market has opened in Camden Passage. The market featured around thirty stalls selling street food, crafts, leather goods and olive oil.
Avril Duplessis’s business, Far Away Crafts, sells crafts imported from Africa. She was pleased with the way the day had gone. Although she admitted that sales had not been that high, she believes it will pick up as more people find out about it.
Nell Ahmed has just started The Hackney Belly selling baked goods. She said that she’d had a really good response. “I’ve sold out of all my savoury muffins and have only two mini scones left.” She said a lot of her “grab-and-go” food had gone but the loaves of bread had been more difficult to shift as people had not come prepared to shop.
Two market-goers said they stumbled upon the market by chance. “We didn’t realise. We were very happy because we were hungry.”
The market’s presence was fairly undetectable in the surrounding area. There was no advertising on the main road nor in the local press. In the nearby Chapel Market, traders said they had only found out by word-of-mouth.
Alice Perry, councillor for St Peter’s ward commented on her blog: “New street markets will create jobs, help promote tourism and generate additional revenue for local businesses.”
But the new market has not been without its problems. The initial licensing meeting was cancelled because not enough councillors turned up.
Objections were also made by local businesses owners and residents, who were worried about issues such as access to the road. One shop owner thought that the idea was misguided, stressing that large numbers of people do not always translate into large numbers of sales.
Lack of toilets available for traders is one of the issues that needs to be addressed should the market become permanent, as at the moment the stallholders are using the toilets of local businesses or the public toilets on Islington Green.
The market will run on a three month trial basis and will be officially launched on 2 December, which organiser Alistair Maddox, of Street Market Events, hopes will be a “special day” and for which there will be much more publicity.
