The market sells food, discounted clothing and a wide variety of household products. In 2011, the Camden Council database reported 77 sites.[1]
Many traders run stalls that have been passed from generation to generation. This is in contrast to the much more recent and considerably more famous Camden markets nearby, which primarily attract tourists and those from other parts of London[2]).
Aesthetically Queen's Crescent market is a mixture, with pretty plain white houses sitting side by side with large council estates, some of which sit in beautifully landscaped grounds.
History
Early history (1872–1927)
As with a number of other streets in the area, Queen's Crescent is named for Queen Victoria who liked to ride in her carriage to West End Lane, Hampstead.[3]
Sainsbury's
In 1872 John Sainsbury and Mary Ann Sainsbury opened their second shop at 159 Queen's Crescent. The following year the Sainsbury family moved to live above the shop.
The shop did well and John James opened another branch in 1875 at 151 Queen's Crescent. This new shop specialised in bacon and ham. Trade continued to grow and in 1884, a third branch was added at number 98.[4]
Market traders moved from Malden Road to Queen's Crescent in 1876 when electrification works were undertaken on Malden Road to replace the horse-drawn trams. In 1893 there were 44 food stalls and 19 non-food stalls with thirteen of the stalls kept by shopkeepers and the rest belonging to independent traders.[5]
From 1867 until 1927, street trading was regulated by the police with no licensing or regulation other than the size and spacing of pitches. Queen's Crescent is the only one of Camden's existing street markets to have started during the era of police regulation.
In 1936, whilst calling the market Queen Street, Bendetta describes a weekday market selling hosiery, draper, clothing, and food.[7]
Patak's
In 1956, Shanta Pathak and her husband Lakshmishankar Pathak moved to Queen's Crescent from Kenya. Whilst Lakshmishankar worked cleaning drains for Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras Shanta started a business from her kitchen making and selling Indian sweets and snacks, this business would grow into Patak's. She soon had queues outside the door and was making deliveries across London.
Following complaints from neighbours about the noise and the smell of the cooking, in 1962 the Council gave them three months to find alternative premises. They found a converted mill in Brackley, Northamptonshire, and left London.[8][9]
In 1983 Forshaw reports 80 stalls on Thursdays and Saturdays selling food as well as clothes, leather goods, toys, cosmetics, and haberdashery from West to East as you move along the Market.[12] In the same year, Perlmutter reports a slightly lower number of stalls at 60 to 70 and recommends the market for buying cheap plants.[13]
The market was successful enough for the council to invest in five garages for market barrows as part of a light industrial development at 47 Allcroft Road.[14] In the early twentieth century the land was later sold for redevelopment and became private housing.
Queen's Crescent Community Association (2013–2015)
The market had been run by Camden Council until 2013, when it was transferred to Queen's Crescent Community Association (QCCA), a not-for-profit charity.[15] In 2015 there were disagreements over the cost of rubbish removal, cleaning and repairs, leaving the QCCA with what it called impossible bills; after negotiations collapsed, the QCCA handed back the market's management to the council.
London Borough of Camden (2015–present)
In May 2016 the market continued, but was much reduced, with traders reduced from 50 a few years earlier to 22.
The Greater London Authority has a Good Growth Fund which provides grants that have to be spent on infrastructure schemes by 2021.[16] Camden Council were awarded £1.1 million in 2018 to reinvigorate Queen's Crescent, including the market, with high street improvement works.[17] The award requires that local people must be involved in the regeneration plans. Members of Reclaim Queen's Crescent, a group campaigning to improve the market and other neighbourhood services said "there is some wariness about how much we will be listened to after our experience with the market".[18]
In popular culture
The Market briefly features in the 1971 short-form documentary about Dorothea Wight and Studio Prints, At a Printmakers Workshop.
Queen's Crescent Market and the Sir Robert Peel pub were used as a filming location in the third episode of the first series of Minder (1979).[19]
^"Queens Crescent Market". Cindex - Services and organisations in Camden. 7 May 2011. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
^
Camden History Society (2020). Camden Street Names and their origins(PDF) (Report). London: Camden History Society. p. 85. Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
^Sainsbury’s. "Kentish Town". Sainsbury's Archives Virtual Museum. Sainsbury's. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
^Public Control Committee (1893). "Appendix B". London Markets, Special Report of the Public Control Committee Relative to Existing Markets and Market Rights and as to the Expediency of Establishing New Markets in or Near the Administrative County of London (Report). London: London County Council. p. 42.
