Queen's Market, also known as Queen's Road Market, and Green Street Market, is a historic street market in the London Borough of Newham. It lies adjacent to Green Street and

Upton Park tube station Upton Park is a London Underground station on the District and Hammersmith and City lines, on Green Street in the Upton Park area of the London Borough of Newham, east London. It is in Zone 3. The station was opened by the London, Tilbury ...

. The street market originated in Green Street at the boundary between East Ham and

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

in the late

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

when the new suburb of East Ham began to be developed. Originally the stall holders were English Cockney, Gypsy communities and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

traders from

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

and the East End, selling clothing and vegetables. The traders were pushed into Queen's Road in 1904 to stop them obstructing the main road and to allow for the passage of trams. It was not until 1925 that the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

obtained statutory powers to regulate street markets. Since the late 1960s and 1970s South Asians from

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Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, Sri Lanka and Asian-Africans started moving families into homes locally and set up stalls and shops along Green Street and inside Queen's Market. Today Queen's Market has a specialist retail offer of South Asian and African food and textiles. Queen's is one of London's most ethnically diverse street markets serving communities from African, Afro-Caribbean, South Asian, South American and newer European communities with cheap, affordable and culturally-appropriate food and clothes. In the 1960s the mock-Brutalist exterior around the markets space frame structure was covered with a roof, making it one of London's few covered street markets. The market is popular, serving visitors beyond Newham and remains the most successful publicly-owned street market in Newham. It is open 4 days a week (open days: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) and has started a Sunday Market selling second-hand goods. In November 2006, in the face of a vigorous local campaign of opposition,

Newham Council Newham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Newham. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a ...

proposed a redevelopment of the existing market site which was to include a supermarket and luxury housing above a much smaller covered market.Newham Regeneration project
accessed 25 Apr 2007 Following the local campaign, in May 2009 then Mayor of London

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

directed

to refuse planning permission to redevelop the market. A notable trader at the Queen's is Muhammad Shahid Nazir, more commonly known as the '£1 Fish Man'. He rose to fame as a fish trader at the Queen's Market through his composition of a market trader's song. It became a viral hit through shoppers at the Queen's Market recording him and uploading to YouTube. It has also given Nazir a record deal, with his single released on 7 December 2012.

References

External links

Friends of Queen's Market
* Report by University of Leeds School of Geography and Markets 4 People (2021)

{{LB Newham Streets in the London Borough of Newham Retail markets in London West Ham