is an outdoor

street market A street market or open-air market, with alternative names such as: market square and sometimes charity market, in cases where the sale is made for charity reasons, is a market that is set up on certain days of the week, generally on the street i ...

held every Thursday and Saturday on Queen's Crescent in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...

, Camden between the junction with Malden Road in the West and the junction with Grafton Road in the East. Licences to trade are issued by

Camden London Borough Council Camden London Borough Council, also known as Camden Council, legally The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Camden, is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one o ...

. The market sells food, discounted clothing and a wide variety of household products. In 2011, the Camden Council database reported 77 sites. 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 The Camden markets are a number of adjoining large retail markets, often collectively referred to as Camden Market or Camden Lock, located in the historic former Pickfords stables, in Camden Town, London. It is situated north of the Hampstead R ...

nearby, which primarily attract

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

and those from other parts of London). 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 Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

who liked to ride in her carriage to

West End Lane West End Lane is a street in inner north-west London, England (grid reference TQ2585) that runs for about one mile between Kilburn High Road to the south and Finchley Road to the north. Located in the London Borough of Camden, and the NW6 postal ...

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

Sainsbury's

In 1872 John Sainsbury and

Mary Ann Sainsbury Mary Ann Sainsbury (''née'' Staples; 30 June 1849 – 9 June 1927) was the wife of John James Sainsbury, the founder of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain. The supermarket chain named their official brand font 'Mary-Ann', used in-store, on ...

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. 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. 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.

Management by local councils (1927–present)

Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras (1927–1965)

The ''London County Council (General Powers) Act 1927'' replaced police regulation with a new

licensing A license (American English) or licence ( Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another par ...

regime administered by

metropolitan borough councils A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolit ...

. From 1927 to 1965 the market was managed by the

Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras St Pancras was a civil parish and Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the ar ...

. In 1936, whilst calling the market ''Queen Street'', Bendetta describes a weekday market selling hosiery, draper, clothing, and food.

= Patak's

= In 1956,

Shanta Pathak Shanta Gaury Pathak (née Pandit; 2 February 1927 – 23 November 2010) was a British businesswoman of Indo-Ugandan descent, and the co-founder, alongside her husband Laxmishanker Pathak, of the Patak's brand of Indian-style curry pastes, sauces ...

and her husband Lakshmishankar Pathak moved to Queen's Crescent from Kenya. Whilst Lakshmishankar worked cleaning drains for

Shanta started a business from her kitchen making and selling Indian sweets and snacks, this business would grow into

Patak's Patak's is a UK brand of Indian-style curry pastes, sauces and spices. It was founded in 1957 by wife-and-husband team Gujarati-British entrepreneurs Shanta Pathak and Lakshmishankar Pathak, who came to Britain, penniless, with their family a ...

. 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 Brackley is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. It is on the borders with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, east-southeast of Banbury, north-northeast of Oxford, and ...

, Northamptonshire, and left London.

London Borough of Camden (1965–2013)

In 1965 the Borough of St Pancras was abolished and its area became part of the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

. By the early 1970s,

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

had closed and been replaced by Studio Prints a workshop run by artist and printer Dorothea Wight which was responsible for printing the etchings of many prominent British artists of the last 40 years, including

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. His early career as a painter was inf ...

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (29 April 1931 – 11 November 2024) was a German-born British painter. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of Lo ...

Ken Kiff __NOTOC__ Ken Kiff, (29 May 1935 – 15 February 2001) was an English figurative artist, who was born in Dagenham and trained at Hornsey School of Art 1955-61. He came to prominence in the 1980s thanks to the championship of art critic No ...

Julian Trevelyan Julian Otto Trevelyan (20 February 1910 – 12 July 1988) was an English artist and poet. Early life Trevelyan was the only child to survive to adulthood of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and his wife Elizabeth van der Hoeven. His grandfather wa ...

R. B. Kitaj Ronald Brooks Kitaj (; October 29, 1932 – October 21, 2007) was an American artist who spent much of his life in England. Life He was born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, United States. His Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne ...

Celia Paul Celia Paul (born 11 November 1959) is an Indian-born British painter, best known for her intense, haunting portraits of her close family and herself. Paul lives and works in London, England. Biography Celia Paul was born on 11 November 1959 ...

, and

Stephen Conroy Stephen or Steven is an English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the firs ...

. In 1978 the goods for sale on Queen's Crescent are described as: 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. In the same year, Perlmutter reports a slightly lower number of stalls at 60 to 70 and recommends the market for buying cheap plants. 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. In the early twentieth century the land was later sold for redevelopment and became private housing. In 2011 Studio Prints closed.

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. 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 The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the Metonymy, metonym City Hall, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved Regions of England, regional governance body of Greater London, England. It consists of two political ...

has a Good Growth Fund which provides grants that have to be spent on infrastructure schemes by 2021. Camden Council were awarded £1.1 million in 2018 to reinvigorate Queen's Crescent, including the market, with high street improvement works. 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".

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 A minder is the person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something, i.e. a person who " minds". Government-appointed persons to accompany foreign visitors are of ...

(1979).

Transport

Bus

Bus Routes 24, 46, and

393 __NOTOC__ Year 393 ( CCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Augustus (or, less frequently, year 1146 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominati ...

serve Malden Road.

Railway and tube

The nearest stations are

Gospel Oak Gospel Oak is an area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-ea ...

and Kentish Town West

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, it now serves a large part of Greate ...

stations.

References

External links

Camden Council's street markets page

Queen's Crescent Community Association 2011 Queen's Crescent Market page
with history and future plans, archived on 26 January 2014, no newer version found
Queen's Crescent Market—National Market Traders Federation

At a Printmakers Workshop
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. {{Markets in London Retail markets in London Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Camden Kentish Town 19th-century establishments in England