“If Brixton didn’t have the market it would be like losing the heart of it,” says market trader Ellie Marie in one of two short films by South Londoner Denisha Anderson.
In 2011 she filmed 68-year-old Terry Beeke and the stall on which he had then worked for 58 years — he started helping his dad aged 10 — along with fellow workers Ellie and Richard Jack.
Then, he told Denisha: “I’m going to carry on and on and on”. This year Denisha went back to make another short.
Today Terry does, as she observes, look even younger, but the changes in Brixton are affecting the market. More and more of the visitors to the market, says Terry, are “lookers, not shoppers”. But he remains positive.
Ellie and Richard are not so sure. Richard fears the council is “pushing everyone out —it’s all to do with money”. Ellie says a lot of yuppies come to the market but don’t spend money there and the traders are having to compete with Lidl and each other. Terry can count 40 stalls selling products like his own in the area.
See for yourself:
Part 1 2011
Part 2 2015
