Traders battle for 'cultural integrity' of Brixton

Blue Blackley is worried about the future of Market Row in Brixton, south London, where she works in a bookshop.

"My concern with the offers that have been put in to buy the market are that Brixton as we know it will really, really change for the worse," she told BBC London.

"There will be a lot of selling of shops to commercial traders, which will ruin the cultural integrity of Brixton."

Local traders and residents have launched a petition and fundraising campaign to try to stop what they describe as "private equity developers" buying Brixton Village and Market Row shopping areas.

However, the bidding for the sites is due to finish on Monday.

Property investment company Hondo Enterprises and private equity company TPG Angelo Gordon bought the market, which has more than 175 shops and restaurants, for £37.25m in 2018.

It is now up for sale again. Campaigners estimate the site could now be worth £50m.

Meera Ghanshamdas, co-director of Round Table Books, said the campaign's plan was to "acquire the market and then sustain it".

She added: "We as traders know what it takes to make this a thriving community. It is about bringing back some of the retail in the daytime and people shopping and doing their daily shopping here, enhancing that."

Ghanshamdas said: "We're the ones talking to people on a day-to-day basis... listening to people who come through our doors, listening to stakeholders who are interested in parallel organisations and other buildings and other organisations around Brixton."

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Labour MP for Brixton, expressed her concern on social media.

She wrote on X: "With private equity trying to buy up Brixton Village and Market Row, local traders face the threat of higher rents and evictions.

"Amid widespread local opposition, they are launching an emergency counter-bid to bring the market under community ownership."

Kat Miles, co-owner of Rachel and Malika's, a lifestyle and decor shop, in Brixton Village, said: "Our fear is we are sold essentially to another private equity company and the continued extraction of wealth from Brixton from the market will happen again.

"It will be reinforced."

Miles added: "This could be a landmark situation, a landmark case where it doesn't go the way of the private equity companies.

"It can be something that can spark other communities in other places in and around the country to potentially do the same thing. It's time for us to really take control of what's happening."

Blackley says she is worried that "selling the market off to big companies means that the rent prices will increase, the cost of living around the local area will also increase, which will just lead to gentrification and it will be unaffordable to live here or trade here".

Daniel O'Connell, owner of Brixton Street Wear, an independent clothing shop in Brixton Village, said the aim of the campaign was to "buy the village for the community to support it".

He told BBC London that Brixton was unique.

"The people, the culture, just the vibe, you come down here, you spend a Saturday afternoon in Brixton Village, you know what it's about, you got mad people from happy people to sad people - but we're all one, we're all together and we're all here for each other."

He added: "I'm very optimistic, you know the little guy can overcome the big guy occasionally, and this time I think regardless of whatever the result is people will get the message of what Brixton means."

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