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Islington Tribune - by JAMIE WELHAM
Published: 7 December 2007

Market to stay at its new base

TRADERS at Archway Market can get back to business after a 500-signature petition helped persuade licensing chiefs to keep it open.
The bustling Saturday market in St John’s Grove – hailed as an “Archway landmark” by supporters – had its temporary licence extended for another six months at the Town Hall on Wednesday.
The 25 traders set up their stalls in pay-and-display bays opposite St John’s Church, with an overspill onto the pavement in Holloway Road.
Market manager Stephanie Smith said the stalls were helping to give the area an identity after years of neglect. “For too long the area’s excellent transport routes have hindered it – people can’t get away quick enough,” she added. “Now we are giving them reason to stay.
“The market is a meeting place for friends and is appreciated by the community. It brings people into the area and boosts the local economy.”
But resident Jan Tucker said siting the market on a busy road posed a danger.
“I’m not against the market itself but by putting it here someone is going to get killed,” she warned. “It is on a busy road. Someone could easily step off the pavement thinking it was a street market and be hit by a car.”
She was concerned about the loss of pay-and-display spaces. “We are denying visitors access to other businesses and their friends and families,” she added.
But Mrs Smith argued that the market had made the road safer for pedestrians by slowing down traffic. “I do not think the concerns of drivers should be put ahead of Archway’s regeneration,” she added. “To ask them to go up and around the roundabout is not a bad thing.”
The market moved to the site after being evicted from Archway Mall in August. It will continue to operate in St John’s Grove on Thursdays and Saturdays for six months with a view to a three-year extension.
Mrs Smith said after the hearing: “We are fast becoming a much-loved local market, which is incredible bearing in mind how little time we’ve been around. We have our own identity but we also have a little bit of everything. We’ve got a mini-Whitecross Street, a mini-Camden, a mini-Portobello and a mini-Brick Lane all rolled into one.”

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