Broadway Market is a street running from London Fields

London Fields

London Fields is a park and the name of an area of London, situated in the eastern borough of Hackney. The park itself was first recorded in 1540. At this time it was common ground and was used by drovers to pasture their livestock before taking them to market in London.London Fields is just over ...

to the Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London....

 in Haggerston

Haggerston

Haggerston is an area and a electoral ward in the London Borough of Hackney, in northeast London, UK. It is bounded by Hackney Road on the south, Kingsland Road on the west, Middleton Road on the north with London Fields and Broadway Market on the east...

 in the London Borough of Hackney

London Borough of Hackney

The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....

, east London.

Before the late 20th century it was the site of a busy fruit and vegetable market, but this slowly dwindled over time - in the early 2000s, market activity was limited to a couple of stands selling produce. On 8 May 2004 a food market was launched on Saturdays which has since become firmly established. Broadway Market is closed to traffic when the market is being held (9am - 5pm). Thanks largely to the market a number of new restaurants and boutiques have opened in the area.

The ongoing development of Broadway Market has sparked a local debate about the perceived gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 of Hackney and the way Hackney council disposed of some of their commercial property portfolio. In late 2005 a group of local protestors occupied 34 Broadway Market (Francesca's café) to bring attention to the issue. Despite being evicted on the 21st December 2005 the building was successfully reoccupied on 27 December (replacing the demolished roof in the process) before the protestors were again evicted on 23 February 2006. It remains to be seen how this issue will be resolved. Allied to this, a campaign has gained momentum to fight the eviction of popular local shopkeeper Spirit, whose shop was sold to an overseas developer by Hackney Council.

Broadway Market, and specifically the barber shop, was the location for David Cronenberg's 2007 film, Eastern Promises. The opening scenes of the 1988 movie Buster

Buster (film)

Buster is a 1988 comedy-drama film starring musician Phil Collins, Julie Walters, Larry Lamb and Sheila Hancock. The soundtrack featured two Phil Collins singles which eventually topped the Billboard 100 singles chart.-Plot:...

were shot at the Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal

Regent's Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin and the River Thames in east London....

 end of the market. It was also used for filming some scenes in the 1947 film Odd Man Out

Odd Man Out

Odd Man Out is a 1947 Anglo-Irish film noir directed by Carol Reed, starring James Mason, and is based on a novel of the same name by F. L. Green.-Plot:The film's opening intertitle reads:...

. Along with many squares and streets in the East End of London, it is rumoured that the old Broadway Market partly inspired the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

.

Getting there

Closest London Underground

London Underground

The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 station:

• Bethnal Green
  Bethnal Green tube station
  Bethnal Green tube station is a station on the Central Line of the London Underground in Bethnal Green, East London. It lies between Liverpool Street and Mile End stations, and in Travelcard Zone 2. The station was opened as part of the long planned Central Line eastern extension on 4 December...
  
  

Railway stations:

• Cambridge Heath
  Cambridge Heath railway station
  Cambridge Heath railway station is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in east London. The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by National Express East Anglia, on the West Anglia route, and it is in Travelcard Zone 2....
  
  
• London Fields
  London Fields railway station
  London Fields railway station is in the London Borough of Hackney in east London. It is 4 km north east of London Liverpool Street on the West Anglia route...
  
  

Buses:
55

External links

• Broadway Market Official website
• Save Tony's Café! Ongoing Broadway Market Campaign news
• The Battle for Broadway Market (documentary) Emily James, 2006
• Broadway Market at Internet Movie Database

Newspaper articles

• 'Market forces' Hari Kunzru, The Guardian, December 2005
• 'The Cleansing of Hackney' Paul Kingsnorth, The Ecologist, March 2006
• 'The best on Broadway' Tom Moggach, thelondonpaper, December 2006

See also

• EASTeight Magazine for the Broadway Market area
• List of farmers' markets
• Ben Eine (artist)