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Camden New Journal - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 30 August 2007

Moving out… in a hearse

Tycoon:‘I’m not behind market revamp’

MILLIONAIRE businessman Richard Caring has distanced himself from plans to redevelop Stables Market in Camden Town.
Mr Caring, who made his fortune as a major clothes supplier, invested in the market in 2005.
But, with the overhaul due to begin next week amid protests that it will change the nature of the popular market, he insisted he was not the driving force behind the revamp.
In a short email to the New Journal, he said: “I’m a silent partner as well as a minor partner and have no influence at all.”
He had been asked for an interview to coincide with the last weekend of trading for some stallholders who have been asked to move out.
Traders spent Tuesday night clearing out the last of their goods in time for developers to begin work on a four-storey glass-and-steel building from Saturday.
One stallholder packed up his stock in a hearse, apparently to represent what he believes will be the death of the market.
Mr Caring, who owns some of London’s flashiest restaurants and nightspots, including The Ivy and Annabel’s, was more enthusiastic last year when he said in October that he wanted the redevelopment to make Camden the fashion capital of the world.
He said: “We don’t want high street chains involved. We are certainly not dropping a new shopping centre in there.”
Trader Kareem Khodeir said this week: “The weekend was emotional and uneasy. There’s a strange and sombre sense of loss.
“Traders who’ve now emptied their shops seem to be still around the market, helping others tear down displays that took years to perfect. It’s as if they know they should have left, but are at a loss as to how to get on with life beyond the familiar old bricks and faces.”
He added: “The arches stand empty with a treasure trove of antiques, art, chairs and whatever else they haven’t bothered to collect kicking about the floors, and some of us have sat back and watched the scavengers skulking through the market on the prowl for whatever we didn’t manage to sell.”
He is to launch a website promoting the traders, which he hopes will develop into a virtual Stables market.
Mr Khodeir added: “The traders will survive. It’s what they’ve learned to do through blood and sweat and what makes them a unique breed now close to extinction.
“Perhaps that is why the public have descended on the market to take pictures and pay their respects to us. I doubt the same affection will ever be seen towards the shopping centre assistants of tomorrow.”

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