Street trading is selling from a stall, stand, or vehicle in the street rather than in a
market hall or square. A collection of regular, and adjacent, street traders forms a street market. Where traders operate on their own, from a regular location, these are variously described as isolated pitches, scattered sites, or miscellaneous sites. Peripatetic traders are termed
pedlars
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of good (economics), goods.
In England, the term ...
.
History
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...
was the oldest known market in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, possibly established in the late ninth century during the reign of
King Alfred
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
.
The large number of street markets in London is due to the 1327 granting of
market rights
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
to the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
. This allowed the City to control the establishment of markets within a radius of six and two thirds miles
0.7 kmbeing the distance a person could be expected to walk to market, sell his produce and return in a day
. The City's market rights caused London's markets to develop differently from the rest of England in their own legislative framework.
The City of London used these rights to prevent the establishment of private markets within the growing urban area outside of the City. Since shops were still a rarity and street trading fell outside the definition of a market, street traders would collect produce from the City's wholesale markets and wheel it to busy thoroughfares on carts from which they would then sell. This practice continued into the late twentieth century:
Albert died when George was 12 and he left school to earn a living. He was charged with taking a horse-pulled cart to Covent Garden, load up with produce, and drive it through crowded streets to Inverness Street Market
Inverness Street Market is an outdoor street market in Camden, North London. Licences to trade are issued by Camden London Borough Council.
History
Early history (1851–1867)
The street was originally called Wellington Street for Arthur ...
, where his brother Billy ran stalls.
Traders were self-regulating. They paid no fees and were subject to no legislation or
bylaws
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...
.
London Labour and the London Poor
Henry Mayhew
Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812 – 25 July 1887) was an English journalist, playwright, and advocate of reform. He was one of the co-founders of the satirical magazine ''Punch'' in 1841, and was the magazine's joint editor, with Mark Lemon, in ...
’s 1851
survey
Survey may refer to:
Statistics and human research
* Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population
* Survey (human research), including opinion polls
Spatial measurement
* Surveying, the techniq ...
of London lists 37 street markets comprising 3,137 stalls with an additional 9,000 street traders not fixed to a street market.
Early regulation
![The Cheap Fish of St-Giles (6678956803)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/The_Cheap_Fish_of_St-Giles_%286678956803%29.jpg)
Section six of the
Metropolitan Streets Act 1867
The Metropolitan Streets Act 1867 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom applying to the City of London and all places and parishes then within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Following public meetings and press c ...
effectively prohibited street trading:
No goods or other articles shall be allowed to rest on any footway or other part of a street within the limits of this Act, or be otherwise allowed to cause obstruction or inconvenience to the passage of the public, for a longer time than may be absolutely necessary for loading or unloading such goods or other articles.
Following public meetings and press criticism, the act was amended within weeks. Section one of the
Metropolitan Streets Act Amendment Act 1867 exempted traders:
The sixth section of the Metropolitan Streets Act, 1867, prohibiting the deposit of goods in the streets, shall not apply to costermongers, street hawkers, or itinerant traders, so long as they carry on their business in accordance with the regulations from time to time made by the Commissioner of Police, with the approval of the Secretary of State.
Whilst the legal threat to the livelihoods of traders had receded, street traders were now subject to regulation by the police. The police required that stalls were no more than wide deep and apart from each other. Where the police deemed a stall to be obstructing the public highway, they could be confiscated and traders would need to pay for the storage along with a fine.
London County Council’s survey
In 1893, the
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
’s survey of London's markets listed 112 street markets. These markets comprised 5,292 stalls, 4,502 belonging to costermongers and the rest being maintained by shopkeepers.
Beginning of licensing
The ''London County Council (General Powers) Act 1927'' replaced police regulation with a new
licensing
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
regime administered by
metropolitan borough councils.
Current management of markets
![Petticoat Lane Market](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Petticoat_Lane_Market.jpg)
Despite reorganisations of London's local government and changes to the underlying legislation, the licensing regime has continued. As of 2020, street trading in London is regulated under the ''London Local Authorities Act 1990 (as amended)'' and/or the ''Food Act 1984'' (Part III), depending on the local authority. Whilst the ''London Local Authorities Act'' allows the regulation of street trading on private roads and areas open to the public within 7 metres of any road or footway, most local authorities only regulate street trading on the public highway.
In 2014 there were 43
street markets in central London (
Camden,
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
,
Kensington and Chelsea,
Lambeth
Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
,
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
,
Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...
, and
Wandsworth
Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan
The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...
).
In the early 21st Century, the City of London has taken a much more circumscribed interpretation of its market rights, limiting itself to wholesale markets. This has allowed a proliferation of
farmers
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...
, niche, and street-food markets on private land in central London. There were 27 private markets in central London in 2014.
Independent management of street markets
Whilst most street markets are managed by local authorities, some are managed by volunteers or private companies:
* Lower Marsh has been managed by a local
business improvement district, WeAreWaterloo since 2012,
* Venn Street is run by a community group, and
* Swiss Cottage Wednesday farmers market has been managed by
London Farmers’ Markets since 1999.
A number of other markets have been relaunched, and run, by volunteers before been taken back into local authority management:
*
Broadway Market was relaunched by the Broadway Market Traders and Residents Association in 2004 though management has now reverted to
Hackney Council
Hackney London Borough Council is the local government authority for the London Borough of Hackney, London, England, one of 32 London borough councils. The council is unusual in the United Kingdom local government system in that its executive fu ...
,
* between 2010 and 2018
Chatsworth Market was managed by Chatsworth Road Resident and Traders Association,
and
* from 2013 to 2015
Queen's Crescent
Queen's Crescent Market is an outdoor street market held every Thursday and Saturday on Queen's Crescent in Kentish Town, Camden between the junction with Malden Road in the West and the junction with Grafton Road in the East. Licences to trad ...
was run by the Queen's Crescent Community Association.
Citations
{{reflist
Bazaars
*
Market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
London society