Some traders and residents based in or around Surrey Street are beginning to question whether Croydon Council is steamrollering them into a future for the 700-year-old market which few, if any, of them want or are happy with.
Croydon’s Surrey Street market: down to 40 per cent occupancy of stalls
This sudden largesse was revealed by the cash-strapped local authority, apparently in response to existing traders in the borough questioning why their council had managed to find the money to make a £3 million loan to attract Boozepark to the town centre, while many of their businesses were struggling after six years of austerity and decades of under-investment in Croydon.
The area around Surrey Street has been operating as a market place since it was first granted a charter in 1276. Its more recent history has been that of steady decline, with fewer than half the pitches being occupied regularly (according to the council’s own figures, there’s just 40 per cent occupancy), and the variety of products on sale along the street also much reduced, with the “pound-a-bowl” fruit and veg stalls concentrated at the northern end of the street.
The most recent, previous effort to revive the market’s fortunes came via the television shopping expert, Mary Portas, and £100,000-worth of government money. Street traders and shop owners along Surrey Street relate that they saw no benefits from the Portas Pilot effort, as the money was spent on over-priced underpass murals and pretentious and derivative cake-baking competitions held away from the street itself.
The early signs for the latest council initiative are not good for existing businesses, either: plans to allowing trading in Surrey Street on Sundays, due to begin next month, is deliberately excluding long-standing stall-holders and traders, apparently for not being “trendy” enough for Watson’s vision of the future.
In his latest letter, Watson announces “a unique opportunity to create a vibrant public space and increase footfall, particularly by introducing early evening and Sunday trading, whilst at the same time making sure that the market’s unique character and history are protected”.
Watson lists a number of improvements to the market which, he says, were raised at a meeting held in March for “local people and traders”.
Among the proposals, Watson lists “improved lighting; better signage to the market; improved market layout; improved stalls; Sunday market”. Watson claims in his letter that this was the result of “feedback” from his meeting.
But existing traders, and some residents who live close to the daily buzz of a once thriving London street market, dispute that any of them sought to introduce Sunday trading.
“Why would we ask for something that we are not allowed to be part of?” one stall-holder told Inside Croydon this week. “It’s typical council cobblers.
“They’ve tried a Sunday market before, and it never worked then, but just caused more disruption for the residents nearby and more mess, which the council’s contractors have never handled very well.
“Councillor Watson’s meeting was for market traders, and was called with barely 48 hours’ notice. A lot of us never knew about it or couldn’t make it at such short notice. We would have certainly told him what we really think if we had been there.”
There is growing concern among some traders that they may be forced off the market, perhaps through rent rises, as the council seeks to “gentrify” the street market by bringing in more “artesan”-style stalls. The manner in which the Progress-led council in Lambeth has helped to evict long-standing traders in Brixton Market was mentioned.
A second consultation meeting which Watson had promised to hold, intended for residents, has never taken place. Residents’ priorities tend to differ from the traders, according to one interviewee who lives nearby: “There’s poor quality street cleaning after the market, with rats and bad smells, and there’s fly-tipping, too. The poor lighting makes the place unsafe at night time.
‘Hugely excited’: Councillor Mark Watson
Another trader we spoke to said, “So who was it that suggested the Sunday market? No one knows, because nearly six months later, they have still not bothered to produce any record of the meeting for those of us who they excluded by not given us fair notice. It’s another Croydon Council ‘consultation’, where they tell us what they want to do, and we have to like it or lump it.”
In his letter, Watson goes on to outline the “hugely exciting” PrideFest planned for Bank Holiday Sunday, which “celebrates the local LGBT+ community”, when there is promised to be 30 stalls providing acoustic music, craft beers (the local pubs will be delighted at that, of course), cocktails and family entertainment. And Surrey Street will be closed from 8am to 10pm.
We asked one long-term stall-holder if he was “hugely excited” about Sunday’s event. They appeared underwhelmed: “Yeah. I get the day off. And the Monday, too. It’ll be the only proper weekend off I will get between now and Christmas.”
So would they be coming along to PrideFest to see its impact on reviving Surrey Street?
“PrideFest?” the market trader said. “What’s that?”
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The residents of Croydon don’t matter. First and foremost comes the Council, and Newmans PR machine..
While long serving staff lose their jobs, and thousands wasted on Boxpark. If it’s that good. Why is it not self financing?
So very Lambeth like….when is a consultation not a consultation….. when Progress Politicians have anything to do with it.
The only words that come to mind for this fiasco, as with so much that the Council tries and fails to do, are, to keep it polite, celebration and brewery.
Like many Inside Croydon residents, I remember when the market was stuffed with stalls from end to end, and was mainly fruit and veg. It was busy, Cockney sparrer land, very redolent of Croydon’s grottier past . The only time you saw the greasy paving undefoot was in cabbage stalk time, after 6pm.
When the market was in full pelt, anytime from 9 to 5, it was a pleasure to go there and see the colourful stalls and colourful market characters– and customers….. and buy far too much fruit.
Over the last 10 or 15 years, I have visited the market less, due to coming into Croydon less, as iti has declined as shopping centre, and my needs for stuff have reduced, as I have almost everything I want. When I go down Surrey Street, I feel rather sad– so many empty pitches, and the gaps between the stalls are just—greasy tarmac.
I would agree with the Councillor that the old place needs a good makeover.
I am 100% sure that if it looks nicer, it will pull more people in.
But really think that it MUST have fruit a and veg-what is a market without it?!
Only if Croydon has more people livng in it, and only if it looks nice, and is easy to get into–which means BUSES!, will the middle thrive again.
It will be different, which I welcome, with more variety. I really can’t see Croydon becoming too trendy fpr its shirt. Which is perhaps good— who want’s too much trendiness?. But a a bit is good.
Just don’t see it as being like a North or East London Market, as it’s just too far from the trendy areas.
I would love to see the crummy 1960’sbuildings on the South side of the market go, and be replaced with better buildings (I would like to see 1660 Croydon rebuilt here, with good drains.)
I keep wondering if the Brit School could be persuaded to take over the beautiful Moorish style water works building as a concert hall, or that it could be part of the new Fairfield hall. It needs life, and at the moment, it is dead. (Matthews Yard however, making a brave contribution to new life.)
I would also love to see abundant flowers. Flower stalls, hanging baskets — the full Monty. I would come to Croydon for that–and a decent coffee shop that does not close at 5. )
Well, however much a flower market would look nice and improve the place, you cannot force traders to come and trade – may be at a loss! Please, guys, move to North End, make a go of it there so the new Surrey Street can have a proper opening full of all the old stalls, in an improved envoronment. Oh, just a thought, would staying in North End permanently be an advantage and nearer to Westfield,and increased footfall, assuming it ever happens?
I hope the Council are helping you with the move to North End making it easy and worth your effort – I shall have to come on Saturday, if nothing better than to purchase my bedding plants if they are available, yet.
(oh dear, parking is going to be fun, now where does one go to lead up trays and such liked?)
Mike