Thursday, 8 March, 2018
Ridley Road Market is the largest market in my area of Hackney, I assume in all of Hackney. It dates back to the 1880s. Originally, it was on the (Kingsland) High Street. But when they started to run trams along that road (hard to imagine now) it moved around the corner to Ridley Road. My family remembers when it was a very Jewish market. In the 60s it became a Caribbean market, then a Turkish and Greek market after the 70s. Today it’s an Afro-Caribbean market again. Slowly as the new and expensive developments have sprung up and the upwardly mobile people are beginning to take over, the ‘English’ traders are creeping back in, with a few fancier food trucks along the market route. One day it may either vanish or become more trendy, like Broadway Market.
It’s still a rag tag and messy/shabby market these days, though. The smells from the African and Caribbean hole in the wall market shops aren’t familiar or pleasant to me but they must all get trade since the same ones are always there. At the top of the market there are reminders of the old East End, the barrow boys yelling their wares if you’re lucky enough to hear them. However, in years gone by it would have been much noisier with everyone shouting their wares and bantering. And I understand that it was normal for the stall keepers to wear a shirt, tie and a hat. I would like to have seen that.
I love markets but I don’t buy much here. I’m not a clean freak but it feels too dirty. The price of fruit is very low but it often looks unappealing or is sold in large bowls for £1 – too much to eat. I have bought mangoes (two for a pound), and eggs from the egg man. I pass by the butchers selling odd bits of animal, the too-smelly fish stalls, the hardware places with cheap pots and pans, the two or three stalls selling only incense – all too heavily jasmine-based for me. I know people who shop there very successfully. Maybe one day I will try to buy more and see how I do.
