Will you help 'Save Borough Market'?

I signed it yesterday. Boo to the train man!

Posted over 3 years ago by iSleepDiagonal

Yeah, fuck all those whiny plebs trying to get into the city centre from south east London, I want my line-caught mozzarella and free range quince chutney, goddammit.

Posted over 3 years ago by cutta

Your tag says you like architecture Cutta, so why the bullshit? There’s some genuinely fascinating local history there, best appreciated on non-market days.

I commute through London Bridge, I’d benefit from more trains. BUT I also take my son to Borough Market for sausage baps and chocolate raisins (is that prole enough?), so this whiny pleb says bollocks to commuters. The DLR already takes some of the strain off demand, and soon the East London Line’s going to take many more from Croydon up to Highbury, bypassing London Bridge. So why is this needed?

I reckon the trains are a red herring, it’s just to free some land for Ken’s phallocentric love of tall buildings, that piss-ugly shard’s going very near there.

Posted over 3 years ago by Mockernee

Yeah, fuck the whiny plebs! Borough Market is joyous. And I’m sure there’s the odd south-east Londoner who is fond of a farm-fresh morsel and would be just as sorry to see the Market go.

Incidentally, there was apparently a plan afoot years ago to do the same to Covent Garden Piazza which, tourist-trap though it is nowadays, you have to admit is architecturally pretty lovely. Westminster Council were planning to build a big road to facilitate access down to the Embankment, pretty much right on top of Covent Garden. It was stopped at the last minute, but work had already started on the first phase, which you can still see in the shape of the big ugly Trusthouse-Forte hotel complex at the top of Drury Lane.

So, think on!

Posted over 3 years ago by salope

I’ve received this email loads of times and, being a cynical wanker when it comes to dodgy chain emails, tried to do a bit of research on this and was struck by the fact that Borough Market’s own website (http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk) makes absolutely no mention of its impeding doom. Isn’t that a bit weird? Couldn’t this just be yet another example of internet scaremongering?

Posted over 3 years ago by uberrich

Uberrich – you may well be right, ‘cos having signed this and forwarded it on I was reminded that the last time I was at the market I picked up their newsletter, and that was trumpeting longer opening hours on more days of the week, all very upbeat and no mention of this threat, which I first heard about 5 years or more ago. So maybe it’s old news.

Posted over 3 years ago by Mockernee

I’m a big fan of architecture, food, and borough market, and would be sad to see this happen. But the rail line in question is desperately in need of an upgrade, as I’m sure most commuters on the Thameslink line would tell you, and so I’d reluctantly support the proposals.

But anyway, it’s not imminent as there’s no funding for it at the moment, and as I’m sure the Olympics will suck up all spare cash for quite a while the market will be safe for a while anyway.

Posted over 3 years ago by Jif

I don’t think this expansion will have any real impact on the actual market. The main complaint is about the knocking down of surrounding buildings.

The one thing that could be done to make Borough Market a better place would be to ban those poxy 4×4 baby buggies from it. Oh, and cycles – why do people wheel cycles through the market? I’ve taken to turning up at 9am on Saturday and making damn sure I’ve got everything I need by 9:30, as otherwise my freshly baked salt and pepper focaccia will end up through someone’s neck.

Posted over 3 years ago by flippy

How old is that petition?! Look up “Thameslink 2000” on the old interweb and you’ll see that this plan is probably the best part of a decade old.

Posted over 3 years ago by unknown

The line upgrade needs to happen. There’s a reason the plan is decades old – it’s needed to be upgraded for decades, and the problem gets worse every year with increasing passenger numbers. London Bridge is the most congested station in the country – i.e.trains divded by platforms. It desperately needs extra capacity to cope. Borough markey will still be there, and most of the structure will remain intact. Some nice buildings (and an excellent pub) will go, but at least it’s for a good reason. I’m more worried about the perfectly good listed buildings that are destroyed to build a new characterless office development, which happens depressingly frequently.

Posted over 3 years ago by kittens

Here’s the press release from Borough Market:

Network Rail and current ‘Save the Borough Market’ petitions.

There are currently a number of petitions being promoted to “Save the Borough Market”. The Borough Market is not itself either promoting or supporting these activities. The Trustees have not been consulted over the wording or accuracy of the petitions, neither do Trustees believe that the railway will threaten the existence of the Market in the way that is being suggested.

Obviously it is not helpful to have a railway constructed through what is a very busy and successful Market. There will be some inevitable disruption, but a formal legal agreement is already in place to minimise it. Indeed the Trustees, in designing the recently completed refurbishment scheme, have already factored in the Thameslink proposal. Both the wholesale and retail markets will continue trading in the refurbished section of the Market.

If and when the railway scheme goes ahead, the Trustees are confident that it will be very much “Business as Usual”.

Posted over 3 years ago by Natasha

So was it basically local residents that were behind this petition?

Posted over 3 years ago by SuckMonster

update

innit

Posted over 2 years ago by purpaboo

I was speaking to a chap in the market the other day and he was saying that Network Rail are forking out for some shiny new additions to the market to make up for all the disruption that the building work will cause.

So, in the long run, I suppose everyone wins?

Except whoever’s felt aggreived enough to start petitions against the plans, obviously…

Posted over 2 years ago by The_Suit

You’ll think I’m a sentimental twat but I actually cried when I discovered that Ma Bakers’ pie shop in Oxford’s Covered Market had become a cunting juice bar. I used to go there for mad pies with my Dad when I was a kid and I just assumed it would be there forever.

Posted over 2 years ago by Ko

I almost cried when I saw Goddard’s pie shop in Greenwich had gone, to be replaced by the Gourment Burger Company. But I didn’t, on account of not being a sentimental twat. I’ll draw a winky face now, to undermine that hypothesis. ;o)

Posted over 2 years ago by Mockernee