Page 18 - Market Times December 2020
P. 18

18 MARKET TIMES • DECEMBER 2020 The end of an era for Dagenham’s
 vast Sunday market
 THE MARKET that inspired a BBC documentary and attracted thousands of shoppers every Sunday has been scuppered by COVID-19.
Frank Nash, who started the market with an old school friend many moons ago, said he and the regular traders were “in mourning” because of the demise of what had become an institution. It was, he says, the last of the real East End markets, full of banter, bargains and larger-than-life characters.
“I felt like I needed counselling after making the decision that we couldn’t reopen the market in September when we realised we couldn’t meet the conditions for safe trading that the pandemic required,” he said.
“But when the second lockdown was announced we realised we had made the right decision. It was
really the only decision we could have made,” he added.
Frank got into market trading by accident after the cloth company he was working for went into receivership and he started selling materials on London markets.
He was offered the chance to run a market in Canvey Island in Essex in 1986, then took the opportunity to start a Jewish market in London’s Docklands just before the Sunday trading laws were repealed.
Once Sunday trading was allowed, the pressure was on to create a big, destination market to rival the large shopping centres that were springing up and capturing the new Sunday shoppers.
Frank took the initiative, moving his market to a 20-acre site near the River Thames in Dagenham 20 years ago where it took off.
“It was a really successful market
for a lot of years, right up until this March when we had to close it because of the pandemic,” Frank said.
Whilst many markets suffered as shopping patterns changed over the years, Dagenham Sunday market remained a big attraction, with between 10,000 and 15,000 shoppers visiting every Sunday looking for bargains and banter from the 600 traders.
Such was its fame the BBC aired a documentary series called Good Morning Dagenham last year featuring the traders.
“In many ways the market was a relic of different times – a real East End market with all the characters and the crowds. But it was a wonderful relic,” Frank said.
When the pandemic struck, Frank and his team were forced to hurriedly shut up shop in March, never for a minute believing that would be the end of the market.
“We just thought we would be up and running again when the pandemic was over and everything would return to normal,” he said.
But when it became apparent that social distancing rules had to be followed, Frank realised it would be impossible to comply.
“We would have had to have told a lot of our traders that we couldn’t let them trade because of the rules, and then the market wouldn’t have been the same. It would have lost the identity that everyone loved so much,” Frank said.
The decision was made in September to call it a day and Frank
Frank Nash
described the task of telling traders as heartbreaking.
“One of the worst things was that no one had the chance to say goodbye after all these years when the market has been a real community, with people getting on together and helping each other out,” he said.
Frank has launched an app, Dagenham Market 24/7, connecting the traders with customers and so far 18,000 people have downloaded it.
He has not entirely given up hope of finding another site. “To be honest, we have been looking for a site for about five years, but every large site is pounced on for housing and development, and we wouldn’t want to start a market that was a shadow of what it was.”
So, for now at least, the final curtain has fallen on one of the UK’s largest and much-loved markets.
  







































































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