Queen’s Crescent street market is aligned with the prevailing west wind so it can act like a wind-tunnel. Street traders deal with the problem by using heavy weights, parked vans as wind-breaks and tying stalls back to signposts.
In a fairly strong wind last week a post fell over, probably because its base was corroded. No-one was hurt but now there’s one less way to secure a market stall.
Street traders need help from those in charge of our “public realm”. Sadly, since 2018 when Camden received GLA funding to improve Queen’s Crescent’s public realm, nothing has been done that improves market trading conditions.
Market storage, an all-weather trading space and tie-points to secure stalls in strong-ish winds would be good but instead we’ve got stripes painted on the surface of the road (now messed up by tarmac patching), some planters and two ‘parklets’. Out of a grant of about £2m for improving QC’s public realm, £1.2m remains according to a recent Freedom of Information request. 40% of the grant has been spent but no permanent work has been done yet.
Camden Council says “It’s taking us longer than we expected to start construction on Queen’s Crescent. This is due to factors out of our control, such as long waiting times for materials. This is caused by the demand for and supply of certain materials, as well as the current economic climate”.
We’re now in a time of extreme cost inflation in the construction sector. Camden’s grant, already overspent, won’t buy as much as it would have in 2018. Knight Frank reports UK build costs are up 24% since 2020.
The last set of publicly available drawings setting out the improvements showed new plant beds on the cross street corners, widening of the pavements on the north side (with related loss of parking), some tree planting, decorative paving in places, a complete (unnecessary and wasteful) reworking of the ramp up to the QCCA building and new street lights (at 25m centres approximately). Pedestrianisation is to be confined to the area outside the Library maintaining the increased through traffic on Bassett Street, Gilden Crescent, Coity Road, Rhyl Street and Allcroft Road which the Queen’s Crescent ‘Low Traffic Neighbourhood’ introduced.
Returning to direct help for the street market, what’s described hardly does anything. A market trader has asked to see the market strategy document which Camden’s consultants finished working on in August but Camden refuses to share it. We hope it recognises the need for practical help for market traders.
West Kentish Town 