I first visited the Seven Sisters market in January 2009, noting its value and its charm. An improvised, warren-like affair within the dilapidated former Wards furniture shop by Seven Sisters station, it had a defining Latin American, particularly Colombian, flavour and offered everything from hairdressing to clothing to property services to, most of all, food: I bought chocolate from Argentina, coffee from Brazil and seasoning from Peru. Spanish was spoken. Salsa played. To some, it was fondly known as the Latin Village. Its future, though, was uncertain.
That was because Haringey Council wanted the site redeveloped, along with a building it owned on the other side of Seven Sisters Road at its junction with Tottenham High Road. The full scheme, devised in partnership with residential property firm Grainger, foresaw the demolition of the Wards building and its replacement with flats plus some ground level shops. The “Latin Village”, though, was not forsaken. Grainger agreed to provide new spaces for the market traders on the same spot, initially at discounted rents, and even to house them temporarily in the other half of the project while the Wards building was knocked down and replaced.
But that part of the story was among many elements omitted from what became a widely-accepted version of events, created by “anti-gentrification” activists and sold wholesale to processions of journalists. In this heroic narrative, the traders circled their wagons in united defence of what one “urban geographer” dubbed “working-class space” against dark forces of capitalist “displacement” by “luxury flats”.
The reality was messier. The adapted-for-outrage narrative made no mention of the affordable dwellings included among those being constructed across the road or the promised reprovision of market space. And the traders did not, in fact, speak with one voice – there were some very sharp divisions. Even hardcore Corbynites on the council, which was captured through a Momentum purge in May 2018 after a ruthless deselection campaign, found the conduct of some of those representing one group of traders unpleasant.
Crowdfunded legal challenges were mounted and failed, with one of them rejected in court as “inherently incredible”. Extreme and unproven allegations were made against council employees trying to maintain basic trading safety standards. Pearl-clutching horror was directed at a computer-generated image of the proposed redevelopment that showed a branch of Costa. Yet in real life the chain had long since inhabited a block almost next door that was routinely packed with “locals”, much like the large Tesco supermarket just down the road. Resistance tellings of the Latin Village tale were cleansed of such inconvenient impurities.
Then came Covid, with all its disruptions. The market closed and was unable to reopen when lockdown rules were eased. That was because in June 2020, Transport for London, the freeholder of the site – the Victoria line runs beneath it – assumed full responsibility for the market and found it had become a death trap. The warren of units was served by improvised electric and gas supplies, falling far short of safety standards.
As with its retailer tenants elsewhere in the capital, TfL gave the traders financial support as repairs got underway with a view to the market reopening in the autumn. But in October 2020, that plan was abandoned. There was just too much to be done. Columns and beams that held the indoor market up had not be treated to protect them against fire. On floors above, heavy fireplaces had no support beneath them. The roof was full of asbestos.
A new plan was made – to create an adjacent temporary market place while the regeneration programme continued. But in August 2021, Grainger pulled out of the Wards building part. For some, that decision represented a glorious triumph. For the market traders, though, it meant yet more uncertainty. And for local people, tired of the eyesore the Wards building had become, the inertia was set to continue. Advocates of a “community plan” for its retention and refurbishment had nice ideas and the support of the council, but no money and little prospect of raising the many millions required. It was clear that the only interested party able to make anything happen was TfL.
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And that is what has now occurred. Earlier this month, a temporary Seven Sisters Market was formally opened, with spaces for 36 of the 37 traders from the old place. Partly indoors, partly outdoors and straddling land owned by Haringey and TfL, it is managed by Market Place on behalf of Places for London, TfL’s property company. I’ve paid a couple of visits, the first on a Sunday lunchtime, the second, last Monday in the company of Places for London chief executive Graeme Craig.
Despite heavy rain, the outdoor food area was doing steady business, including with a hungry me. The traders will pay no rent for the first three months as they and the revived south Tottenham destination find their feet, followed for 15 months by weekly charges similar to what they were paying before the old market closed. Longer-term, rents will be set in accordance with footfall and business activity. At the end of the day, it has to be economically self-sustaining.
This has been negotiated with a community benefit society (CBS) set up by advocates of the community plan – now under new leadership – along with much else. The configuration and allocation of the market units was a complicated process, partly because some businesses had specific needs – hairdressers and beauticians, for example, need lots of running water – and partly because of the enmities between some of the business owners.
Craig paid tribute to Haringey leader Peray Ahmet and cabinet member for placemaking, Ruth Gordon for their support for his endeavours, and to a Spanish-speaker seconded to Places for London from City Hall, too modest to be named in this article, who Craig considers to have made an outstanding contribution to working out solutions. It would be premature to say that all is sweetness and light. However, the general feeling seems to be one of so far, so good.
What next? The old indoor market is now a cleared, empty space. With its new, temporary replacement up and running, Places for London is looking to work with the CBS to determine the future of both the market and the ex-Wards building. Refurbishment is thought more likely than redevelopment, but the outcome needs to meet economic as well as social objectives – a core purpose of Places for London is to generate money for TfL to help it keep the tube and buses running.
Standing in the vacant space, Craig said the answer would “inevitably be mixed-use”, with “the market at its heart”. Some combination of retail, office and community uses is being envisaged. Places for London hopes a full partnership with the CBS might be established, though the sheer size of the task ahead, financial as well as in design and construction terms, means the TfL firm will continue to be a driving force.
The re-birth of the Latin Village, albeit in a temporary home, is something to be welcomed and enjoyed. At the same time, the bulk of Wards Corner remains in a limbo that might have been avoided had the original regeneration been completed. The old store is still partly propped up by scaffolding. The wide pavement outside, with its entrance to the tube, is still rather scruffy and confused, with one of the most disobliging cycle lanes in London (there is no lack of competition). The potential for a thriving London Latin quarter remains. The job of realising it has just begun.
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