united-kingdom – To promote and preserve a thriving publicly-owned historic street market

There’s never a quiet day when those in power keep trying to pull the rug from under our feet.

Recently, Green Party Deputy Mayor Zoë Garbett visited Queen’s Market. Zoe likely cycled down from the new Greater London Authority (GLA) that’s moved into Newham now. Funny, isn’t it? All this “movement” from City Hall, yet so little progress for the local communities living right where they’ve set up shop.
To be fair to Zoë and the Greens at the GLA, they have always bothered to listen to the plight of Queen’s Market’s traders, so we really appreciated them coming down.

During their visit, market traders shared powerful stories about why Queen’s Market matters: it’s not just as a place to shop, but is the beating heart of the community. One trader pointed out that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, seems to view everything through a narrow “investment” lens. Well, if the Mayor truly wants to invest in London’s future, he should start by investing in the people who make this city alive, and not into sterile, privatised developments that push out working-class families and erase our cultural heritage.

London doesn’t need more glass towers and corporate plazas. It needs places like Queen’s Market – places where people connect, trade, and thrive together. But instead of supporting us, the powers that be are letting our markets crumble while calling their plans “regeneration.”

Across London, ethnic minority and working-class neighbourhoods are being steamrolled by gentrification, dressed up as “progress.” As one local put it bluntly: “They’ve proper gentrified the lot.” And for what? So we can pay more for fruit and veg while decision-makers sit in air-conditioned offices paid for by our taxes? No thanks, we won’t stand by and let that happen here.

Meanwhile, even the basics are being ignored. As the days grow shorter, Friends of Queen’s Market, alongside shoppers and traders, are once again pleading for proper lighting inside the market. The issue has been raised time and again – yet still nothing. It’s a simple, essential fix that would make the market safer and more welcoming. We’re calling on those responsible to act now before the new year, before another winter in the dark. Because this market isn’t just a retail place, it’s a community and social space worth fighting for.

Photos (above): Zoë Garbett, the Green Party Deputy Mayor visits Queen’s Market to hear the views of local people.

Questionable data used by Council tries to justify demolition of Queen’s Market

Despite the 6,000+ signatures from our public petition and £millions spent from the Good Growth Fund to refurbish aspects of the market, Newham Council’s planning department have decided to continue with their plans to pile on other uses onto the historic 125 year old Queen’s Market.

The two new options under the title ‘Queen’s Market & Hamara Ghar Investment Strategy Study’ shows new plans for the historic market and for the older people’s homes (Hamara Ghar) located next door to the market. Hamara Ghar includes longtime residents who rely on the market for fresh affordable culturally appropriate food, cloth, clothes and home stuff, not forgetting it being an important social space for them also.

Image above: latest plans earmark Queen’s Market for other uses with the market not being a central priority in the “future vision” that’s being decided behind closed doors.

Council trying to pull the wool over our eyes

The Council’s “dodgy” consultations data and ‘bullheaded’ approach means they have ignored local needs despite spending £3million+ for a Co-create website that local people find difficult to access. This is our collective public money being wasted for their ‘experiments’ during a time of hardship for local families. Inside the Cabinet Report, it states: “The Council will enable every resident to live in an accessible and inclusive neighbourhood which will provide all their social, civic and economic essentials” – well, Queen’s Market already provides this, so why is the Council wasting time and public officer efforts to demolish Queen’s Market? Have the publicly-paid officers got nothing better to do with their time?

FoQM have carefully scoured the plans on the table and see many contradictions in the Councils plans that will decimate the vibrancy of the current historic market and the important social space for many. The Council regeneration department have proved time and time again that THEY CANNOT GIVE ANY REASSURANCES THAT THE MARKET WILL SURVIVE ANY REGENERATION PLANS – see poor old Rathbone Market in Canning Town that has sadly been turned into a lifeless car park.

Images above (3): Locals have said time and time again that they want Queen’s Market to be retained and protected, but Newham Council doesn’t appear to know what meaningful dialogue is.

A “future vision” that ignores the wishes of local people

Some of these consultation plans say “Refurbish and modernise” which when we last checked means to spruce a place up and give it a lick of paint, not to DEMOLISH THE MARKET COMPLETELY AND SMOTHER IT with a health/community centres, reduced storage for stall holders, tall towers, workspace etc. with the market taking less priority.

If the nearby Boleyn Grounds is anything to go by, we reckon the flats, health centre and host of other uses being plonked onto Queen’s Market will include LUXURY UNAFFORDABLE FLATS FOR THE ALREADY WEALTHY and even a PRIVATISED MARKET that will ‘zap up’ money that should otherwise go to local people, to local shop owners, local jobs to local families. Queen’s Market is Newham’s most successful public-owned market that subsidises the borough’s other markets, so we know it makes revenue for the Council.

A long-time shopper Nehar said: “Why can’t they [the Council] just leave Queen’s Market be? It’s a proper market that provides for me and my family. The Council seem to want to destroy anything that’s good for us.”

Another local person who has shopped at Queen’s Market for over 35 years says: “During the last consultation [in 2022] I witnessed a Council person (describing themselves as a Translator) say to a family who came along to the consultation: “You want the market to stay, don’t you?”, and then hurriedly tick Option 2 on behalf of the family. It didn’t look like the Translator even knew the difference between both the options. People were given a Hobson’s Choice”.

Image above : British film ‘Hobson’s Choice, 1954. A Hobson’s choice is when you’re given the impression of choosing from multiple options, but in reality, there’s only one available. A well-known example is “Take it or leave it,” where leaving isn’t really a favourable choice.

There is mounting evidence that Newham Council’s data is dangerously wrong and misleading in order to push through demolition/regeneration, and we reckon a privatisation agenda.

Image above : Friends of Queen’s Market critique on the Council’s data presentation (in bright yellow colour). Local reports say that the Council and private consultants boards mentioned ““Refurbish and modernise” but it actually meant demolition.