urban intervention - watney market

In the early years of the 20th century it was one of the liveliest local markets in London: in 1902 there were over 100 shops and 100 stalls.

By the 1960s Watney Market was in decline: people were moving away, and beginning to shop elsewhere. By the end of the decade only a handful of stalls was left.

Sites were cleared for redevelopment - housing and a new market - but it was slow in coming.

Twenty years on, the rebuilding is now more or less finished, and the area has been expensively landscaped, but its character has gone. There are no permanents stalls and the product range seems to attract only a few out of the whole group of passersby.