The same thing happened to Covent Garden in the 1970s - the original site was closed, a new one was opened that over time became very evidently much better suited to being a large scale wholesale fruit and vegetable market.

Everybody and their uncle bitched and moaned about it, but I think there are few people today who would argue that London would be better off if Covent Garden was still the central produce market rather than the touristic hellhole it is today.

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walthamstow 2 years ago | parent | next [-]

But they're not opening a new one! They're closing the current one and telling the traders to fuck off somewhere else

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PaulDavisThe1st 2 years ago | parent [-]

Yo E17 my homie!

Think of it as encouragement to the traders to find their own new location :)

	▲	walthamstow 2 years ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I read in the FT this morning that rather than the traders being told to fuck off as I earlier stated, they are being paid a handsome sum to go quietly. Many of them will simply retire, one trader is quoted as saying. Sounds like the Costa del Sol and Canary Islands are about to get a large influx of cockney butchers.
	▲	fractallyte 2 years ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not with the traffic congestion hell that is E17...

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bearbin 2 years ago | parent | prev [-]

The New Covent Garden Market itself is currently in the middle of a multi-decade redevelopment, they've slightly reduced the footprint and sold off some land for development, and the remains (still a massive area) is being _very_ slowly converted into a more modern design - sadly not really a market where you can actually go on foot to buy things, but a co-location area for lots of wholesalers to warehouse and deliver from.

	▲	PaulDavisThe1st 2 years ago \| parent [-]
		The old one was the same - not retail, just wholesale.