Context 165 - August 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 5 : A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 13 Food and drink one of the liveliest in England. Bustling and colourful, with over 350 stalls crammed into a variety of market buildings and in the open air, Bury celebrates local produce with a huge range of fresh food. Here you will find Chadwick’s original Bury Black Puddings, made to a secret recipe from 1865, and patronised by Prince Charles and the late Ken Dodd. There are fat Eccles cakes, plump Goosnargh poultry and rare breeds of beef from farms in Lancashire, and tempting cafes serving traditional fry-ups. Unlike the sterile supermarket model which has caused the demise of so many markets, at Bury the traders love to chat, while in the liveliest part, the Fish and Meat Hall, they call out their wares in an endless banter of goodwill and entertainment. Bury is exceptional, but since the Parliamentary inquiry, a number of councils have been looking beyond the traditional market models to attract a wider range of buyers, younger people in particular, and creating opportunities for a different type of market trader. The increas- ing desire for local produce, both edible and otherwise, is also leading to new ideas. A current trend-setter is Nick Johnson, formerly a director of Urban Splash, who now runs two markets, one in Altrincham, his home town, and another in Manchester. In 2013 he and his partner Jenny Thompson took over from Trafford Council the running of the Altrincham market which, together with a fifth of the shops in the town centre, had been killed off by the nearbyTrafford Centre and a Tesco superstore. Their models were the Boqueria market in Barcelona and Columbia Road in east London, as well as Bury; their selling points are that you can not get it online, it is handmade and you are dealing directly with the creator. More than 120 traders in the outdoor market, each with some- thing special to offer, include bakers, butchers, chocolatiers, jewellery makers and purveyors of limited-edition jeans. All are from the northwest, and most of the produce is too. The Grade-II- listed Market House, which occupies about half the market place, was renovated at a cost of £500,000. Within it now is a range of food and drink units set around a large eating area with shared tables and a sound system for live music and films. Since it opened, the market’s success has acted as a catalyst for new shops, bars and cafes to open up in the surrounding conservation area. A key reason for its success is flexibility and cost- efficient operating systems: traders are charged a percentage of turnover, thus reducing the risk and encouraging innovation. The only downside has been a 483 per cent increase in business rates slapped on the property by the local authority this year, ostensibly to meet criteria set out by the government’s valuation office agency, and thereby threatening its economic viability. Johnson’s Manchester project involved reno- vating the old meat market in the northern quar- ter of the city, another listed building that had been empty for decades. On a larger scale than the Altrincham Market House, but without any additional space for market stalls, this is strictly a prepared food and drink market, catering for over 10,000 customers a week. The building, known as Mackie Mayor after Ivie Mackie, the Mayor of Manchester when it was first opened in 1858, has been renovated, with a new glazed roof, its rough brick walls left exposed, and a reclaimed timber floor. There are 18 independent kitchens plus beer and wine bars, and customers wander about to see what is cooking and watching the chefs at work, before placing their order, not necessarily from the same counter. Food and drink then arrives at your table. Johnson’s idea is that instead of money leaching out in profits to London or to a multinational, not only the jobs but also the value remains in the region. ‘The money made here stays here,’ he says. ‘It helps with Brexit Britain.’ Some of these ideas underpin other recent market revivals. Stockport’s Produce Hall, a classical stone building of 1852, adjunct to the splendid iron-and-glass Market Hall of 1861, has reopened for independents as part of an ambitious conservation-led regeneration of the Market Place. Other initiatives include the well- received conversion of a section of Wrexham Market into a contemporary art gallery and the conversion of part of Maidstone Market into a town centre distillery and bar. Traditional market traders have often been in conflict with Altrincham Market