# Berwick Street Market

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Street market in the City of Westminster, London, England

Berwick Street Market Berwick Street Market in 2006 Location Berwick Street, Soho Coordinates 51°30′47″N 0°08′04″W / 51.512921°N 0.134365°W / 51.512921; -0.134365 Address Berwick Street, Soho Opening date 1842 (184 years ago) (1842) Management City of Westminster Owner City of Westminster Environment Outdoor Goods sold Street food, fruit & veg, household goods, fashion Days normally open Monday to Saturday Number of tenants 40 Website westminster.gov.uk/licensing/markets-and-street-trading Berwick Street Market Location in City of Westminster

**Berwick Street Market** is an outdoor [street market](/source/Street_markets_in_London) in the [Soho](/source/Soho%2C_London%2C_England) area of the [City of Westminster](/source/City_of_Westminster). It takes place on [Berwick Street](/source/Berwick_Street). [Licences to trade](/source/Street_trading_licence) are issued by [Westminster City Council](/source/Westminster_City_Council).

## History

Before 1867 street trading in London was regarded as a common-law right in London. After being banned for a few weeks in late 1867 street trading was regulated by the police with no licensing or regulation other than the size and spacing of pitches. This light-touch regime continued until the *London County Council (General Powers) Act 1927* replaced police regulation with a new [licensing](/source/Street_trading_licence) regime administered by [metropolitan borough councils](/source/Metropolitan_boroughs_of_the_County_of_London).[1]

From 1867 until 1927, street trading was regulated by the police with no licensing or regulation other than the size and spacing of pitches.

In 1893 the [London County Council](/source/London_County_Council)'s Public Control Committee stated that the Market had existed since at least 1842 (though it is not listed in Mayhew[2]) between Broad Street and Peter Street and that the market included Walker's Court which continues Berwick Street south down to Brewer Street.

At that time there were 32 traders on a Saturday with 20 on weekdays, with the costermongers occupying the west side of the street. Many of the traders had relocated from [Seven Dials](/source/Seven_Dials%2C_London) during the construction of [Shaftesbury Avenue](/source/Shaftesbury_Avenue). The market was then predominately fresh produce for home and commercial kitchens.

The Saturday traders are summarised as:

Perishable goods Commodity Number Vegetables 9 Butchers' meat 4 Fruit 1 Flowers 1 Fish 4 Cheesemonger 1 Eggs 1 Catsmeat 2

Non-perishable goods Commodity Number Earthenware 3 Haberdashery 4 Ironmongery 1 Old books 1

According to the Public Control Committee, [the vestry](/source/St_Anne_Within_the_Liberty_of_Westminster) was opposed to registering or licensing the traders.[3]

The local vestry was of the opinion that the market should be open to all goods except secondhand clothes as they were concerned about infectious diseases following the [1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak](/source/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outbreak).[4]

In the early 1920s [Virginia Woolf](/source/Virginia_Woolf) often frequented the market and prided herself in her ability to haggle over silk stockings with the market traders who were described at the time as "cosmopolitan—French, Swiss, Italian, Greek and suburban."[5]

Mary Benedetta describes the 1936 market as being quiet compared to a post [first world war](/source/World_War_I) peak. The fruiterer Jack Smith still held a regular pitch where he would remind customers and of his claim that in 1880 he was the first person in England to retail tomatoes and in 1890 the first to retail grapefruit.[6][4][7]

Between the wars the market became renowned for chintzes, satins, furs, and fine silk stockings servicing the theatres and caberets of the [West End](/source/West_End_theatre). Despite this change in emphasis, fresh food remained a presence on the market. It was during the [interwar period](/source/Interwar_period) that Berwick Street became one of the first street markets in London to have an electricity supply for traders to illuminate their stalls.[4]

Following the second world war an explosion of [department stores](/source/Department_store) along [Oxford Street](/source/Oxford_Street) poached the millinery trade away from the market and returned to its late nineteenth century focus of fresh food.[4]

By the mid-nineties the market consisted of over eighty stalls until in 1995 Westminster Council restricted the market to the east side of the street only gradually reducing the number of pitches to 41 through closing the market to new traders.[7]

In the middle of the 2010s Westminster City Council considered turning the market over to a private operator but abandoned the plans following a campaign by local residents and traders and a petition signed by 37,000 people including [Joanna Lumley](/source/Joanna_Lumley) and [Stephen Fry](/source/Stephen_Fry).[8][9]

## Transport

### Bus

[12](/source/London_Buses_route_12), [159](/source/London_Buses_route_159), [188](/source/London_Buses_route_188), [390](/source/London_Buses_route_390), and [453](/source/London_Buses_route_453).

### Railway and tube

The nearest stations are [Tottenham Court Road](/source/Tottenham_Court_Road_tube_station) , [Oxford Circus](/source/Oxford_Circus_tube_station) , and [Piccadilly Circus](/source/Piccadilly_Circus_tube_station) .

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-kelly2019_1-0)** Kelley, Victoria (2019). *Cheap Street: London's Street Markets and the Cultures of Informality, c. 1850–1939*. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 39.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-mayhew1851_2-0)** [Mayhew, Henry](/source/Henry_Mayhew) (1851). [*London Labour and the London Poor; a cyclopædia of the condition and earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work*](https://archive.org/details/cu31924092592751/). Vol. I. London: G. Woodfall and Son. p. 11. Retrieved 10 July 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Report1893_3-0)** 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. pp. 43–44.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-bergström1989_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-bergström1989_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-bergström1989_4-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-bergström1989_4-3) Bergström, Theo & Forshaw, Alec (1989). *The Markets of London* (Revised ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 38–40.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-walkowitz2012_5-0)** Walkowitz, Judith (19 April 2012). ["Virginia Woolf's Soho: Extract From 'Nights Out' by Judith Walkowitz"](https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2012/04/19/virginia-woolfs-soho-extract-from-nights-out-by-judith-walkowitz/). *Yale University Press London Blog*. London: Yale University Press London. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240224092736/https://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2012/04/19/virginia-woolfs-soho-extract-from-nights-out-by-judith-walkowitz/) from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved 20 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-benedetta1936_6-0)** Benedetta, Mary & [Moholy-Nagy, László](/source/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Moholy-Nagy) (1936). [*The Street Markets of London*](https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72717). London: London John Miles. pp. 53–59. Retrieved 12 July 2020.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-harriss1996_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-harriss1996_7-1) Harriss, Phil (1996). *London Markets* (1st ed.). London: Cadogan Books. pp. 22–26. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-86011-040-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-86011-040-1).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-rustin2016_8-0)** Rustin, Susanna (25 July 2016). ["Soho's last stand? Inside the battle to keep Berwick Street market independent"](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/25/saving-soho-battle-keep-berwick-street-market-independent). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. [London](/source/London). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240603100053/https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/25/saving-soho-battle-keep-berwick-street-market-independent) from the original on 3 June 2024. Retrieved 7 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-prynn2017_9-0)** Prynn, Jon (22 March 2017). ["Victory for Soho's Berwick Street market traders as Westminster council scraps 'privatisation' plans"](https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/victory-for-sohos-berwick-street-market-traders-as-westminster-council-scraps-privatisation-plans-a3495941.html). *[The Evening Standard](/source/The_Evening_Standard)*. [London](/source/London). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20230106071015/https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/victory-for-soho-s-berwick-street-market-traders-as-westminster-council-scraps-privatisation-plans-a3495941.html) from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2024.

## External links

- [\[1\]](https://www.westminster.gov.uk/licensing/markets-and-street-trading/)—The City of Westminster's markets webpages

- [LBerwick Street Market—National Market Traders Federation](https://www.nmtf.co.uk/market-near-me/berwick-street-market)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Berwick Street Market](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick_Street_Market) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick_Street_Market?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.