We make no apologies for running another Queen’s Crescent story this week. After all, as the most deprived area in NW5 it needs all the publicity it can get. And, as it happens, for once this is good news.
Local papers and blogs have been alive this week with the news that the management of Queen’s Crescent Market will be transferred from the council to Queen’s Crescent Community Association.
Why is this a positive thing? Well, we hope that now it’ll be run by people who actually care about the street (and no, before you ask, we’re not fans of Cameron’s “Big Society”). Already, rumours abound that a farmer’s market element will be introduced, alongside plans to reduce the £15 a day stall hire to make it easier and cheaper to set up. And apparently another idea is to train up young people and educate and encourage them to start their own business.
It’s worth saving, isn’t it? Queen’s Crescent Market is, after all, one of the oldest street markets in the capital, dating back to the 1870s. Sainsburys had their second, third and fourth shops on the Crescent, and the original Mr J Sainsbury was once even a market stall holder.
If locals can revive markets successfully in other parts of London – look at what’s happening in Clapton’s Chatsworth Road for example – we can do it here, on our doorstep. Oh, and how about offering those boarded-up shops to artists and other creative enterprises on rent-free short lets too?
Get involved here.
