London’s street markets: the shifting interiors of informal architecture

Kelley, Victoria (2019) London’s street markets: the shifting interiors of informal architecture. The London Journal, 45. pp. 189-210. ISSN 0305-8034

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Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Berwick Street Market, 1936

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Kelley Street Markets FINAL (1MB)

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Creators:

Kelley, Victoria

Description/Abstract:

This paper examines London’s street markets as overlooked sites of consumer modernity, ‘complex interiors’ that were contested and contradictory spaces within the city. It asks whether the street markets can be seen as ‘architecture’, arguing that, despite their outdoor locations, shifting form, and lack of built infrastructure, the street markets achieved a sense of enclosure and interiority through the particular qualities of their lights, sounds and their crowded occupation of space. The street markets produced complexity as a result of their informality, as a-legal and organic outbreaks of micro-entrepreneurship. The paper covers the 1850-1939 period, and examines the specific example of Chrisp Street market in Poplar. In the post-war period, this was formalised as Lansbury Market, and relocated into a planned market square. It thus usefully casts light back on the earlier period, as an example of what happened when street markets moved from informal to planned status.

Item Type:

Article

Official URL:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/030580...

Date:

23 December 2019

Identification Number:

DOI 10.1080/03058034.2019.1703432.

Additional Information:

Peer reviewed, currently awaiting publication, for special issue on 'Complex Interiors', to be published in 2020.

Uncontrolled Keywords or tags :

street markets, informal economy, informal architecture, ephemeral architecture, light, sound, Chrisp Street, Lansbury Estate