Understanding London’s Markets
The Mayor of London has been one of the UK’s biggest supporters of retail markets, investing more than £20m into 50 market focused schemes across 18 London boroughs Markets backed by the Mayor include high-profile markets such as Chrisp Street in Tower Hamlets and Electric Avenue in Brixton. But the Mayor has also supported less visible markets such as Cricklewood Market in Barnet, and North Cheam Market in Sutton The Mayor recognises markets as important supporters of town centres and communities and attractors of footfall to London’s High Streets. Markets have also shown their ability to provide career opportunities, platforms for entrepreneurs, and opportunities for training and retraining.
The Mayor wants to build understanding of the contribution of markets, and provide ways for operators to measure and prove their value, making them more accessible to support and investment.
To this end the GLA has appointed markets research experts ROI Team (www. roiteam.co.uk) to undertake the project Understanding London’s Markets Under this brief ROI Team is busy gathering information about retail markets across London. In our work we have identified more than 300 active markets. One of our outputs will be the first searchable map of all London’s markets, enabling members of the public to search for the market to suit their shopping and leisure plans. Make sure your market is on there.
In July ROI Team consulted 210 traders in 7 markets across the capital ie :
- Romford Market
- Chapel Market, Islington
- Surrey Street, Croydon
- East Street, Southwark
- Western International Sunday Market, Ealing
- Kingston Ancient Market and
- Portobello and Golborne Road Markets
This information is helping us to build a picture of the typical per day turnover, helping traders to judge their own performance for their stall type, and a first step to assessing the health of a market We have now opened the Greater London Markets Survey which asks for your help in providing basic information about the operation and facilities available in your market. The survey is open now online, and we want our work to highlight every type of market across London.
So if you are a London market operator please contact ROI Team on 020 3740 9384 or email Temisan.Arenyeka@roiteam.co.uk and ask to complete the questionnaire. Completion will take less than 10 minutes for the great majority of market operators.
Before the end of 2016 the Mayor plans to release Understanding London’s Markets with deliverables including :
The first searchable map of all London’s Markets
Report with recommendations and measurement approaches Online toolkit to help operators, investors, and others to access the markets sector.
For more information about Understanding London’s Markets please call Andrew McCall of ROI Team on 020 3740 9384
Article by: Andrew McCall, Managing Director, ROI Team and Tina Jadav, Regeneration Team, GLA.