What does the future hold for one of London’s oldest street markets?

“IT’S a waste of money!” says Cafe Sizzles’s Fikri Kesgin of the £1.6million spent on what has been described as an upgrade for Chapel Market.

The celebrated street market in Angel – once famous for its fruit and veg stalls and a monkey that would pose on your shoulder for a small fee (for its owner, obviously) – is a shadow of its former self according to some of those trying to make a living in the street. The number of stalls and customers has dwindled, and so has trade.

“In about a year there won’t be any businesses left,” warned Yildirim Gorgun of Cafe Millenium.

He has been there for 15 years and is looking to sell up.

“Everybody will close soon. I can’t see any future here. I don’t want to leave but I can’t continue like this any more.,” he said, adding that two well-established restaurants in the street had closed in the past month.

These included including the Delhi Grill which said on its Instagram account: “It is now time to move on from Chapel Market.”

This week, traders and shopkeepers said huge amounts of money spent on the council-run market have not only failed to “future-proof” it, as council press officers ambitiously pledged last year, but have conversely driven trade and traders away.

David Twydell, the chairman of the Chapel Market Traders Association

Fikri Kesgin at Cafe Sizzles

New flower beds were added, and a new gazebo put in. But Dean Flint, who has run a plant stall at “the Chap” for 20 years, said there are now 15 fewer stalls on the market than when the Town Hall’s project first began in May last year.

Islington pledged to recruit new traders, but traders said that people who had applied to get a stand had been rejected.

Adrian Serrano, the “Paella man” who runs La Real Paella and won Street Food Trader of the Year in 2022, said: “They stopped taking applications from new traders and now we are just three food traders – before we were 15 or 20. The market is dying slowly, slowly, slowly.”

A month ago Mr Flint stopped taking card payments as with so few customers it was not worth paying the charges, and said he was considering “what comes next” for him.

When asked what the market would look like in the future, his daughter Paige, who also works on the stall, said: “I don’t think it will be here that long”.

Dean Flint and Adrian ‘Paella Man’ Serrano

So what has gone wrong at the Chap, which at 150 years old is one of London’s oldest markets?

The new flower beds have been hit numerous times by vehicles traveling on the street, and the council has faced accusations of poor design and shoddy materials.

But the main problem, according to Mr Gorgun and some of the traders, is that they cannot scare customers away by raising prices – but the cost of producing what they are selling is up to 20 times more expensive than in the past. Other difficulties were cited as business rates which were continuing to bite and new parking restrictions.

While cafe owners say they used to have a lucrative breakfast trade, since these controls changed from 8.30am to a 7am cut-off time they are now forced to rely on lunch trade.

Yildirim Gorgun: ‘Everybody will close soon’

Sainsbury’s in Tolpuddle Street also recently cut its two-hour parking slots to one hour, and disabled parking bays in Baron Street were reduced, leaving people with mobility issues unable to visit in their cars.

Mr Flint said: “They [the council] want it to be a yuppie trendy street,” adding that he had been told the council was modelling its future on Exmouth Market, which has restaurants with tables and chairs out on the street.

David Twydell, chairman of the Chapel Market Traders Association, encouraged people to appreciate the improvements and said the market had needed a spruce up.

But he conceded trade had not improved in the way they had hoped.

He warned the Chap is likely to look very different in the coming years as traditional fruit and veg market traders such as himself and John Papworth, who retired last month after 50 years, leave the trade behind.

A council spokesperson said: “Chapel Market is one of Islington’s best-loved local markets, serving local communities for over 150 years with a range of affordable goods and fresh food.

“As part of our mission to keep Islington’s local economy thriving, we are working to improve and update the market so that it will be a great place to shop and trade for years to come. We want to provide a varied range of affordable goods and services in the market – from a place to get keys cut, to buy fresh fruit or to try some delicious hot food.

“The changes that have been made to Chapel Market have helped to create an even more welcoming, pleasant space for residents, visitors, and traders, and reflect the feedback that the council received during a public and trader consultation at the start of last year.

“We are actively recruiting traders for the market to make sure that we continue to have a diverse mix of traders, to attract old and new shoppers and visitors alike. Plus, we offer flexibility with casual trading licences and cheap stall rents.”