This is a beautiful necessary reflection. It’s heartbreaking to see a place that fostered such genuine connection being replaced by the very forces it helped to attract.
As an architect, I’ve always been fascinated by how the spaces we inhabit change their skin. We often see neighborhoods evolve, but it’s a tragedy when that metamorphosis serves profit over the origin, stripping away the soul of a community. When we lose anchors of convivialité like this, we don't just lose a market; we lose the right to inhabit the city together. Thank you for this powerful piece.
I guess the question underpinning this is ‘who cares’… both in its direct meaning and the deeper one of who will care.
As a nearby resident the changes in Elephant have been astounding, but also unnerving. What was once a very unique place is transforming into a sameness of many other parts of London.
It still has difference (for instance we now have a large HK Chinese community, and so three quite good Asian food stores) but that difference feels artificial, carefully created so that you don’t notice unless you really want to, unless you care… and as I watch people around here go about their daily business, it is apparent that many don’t care, about what they’re losing or what’s replacing it all.
I agree, not all changes of skin are for the better. It often feels like a forced metamorphosis rather than natural growth.
However, I still believe that in all areas of life, there are always a few who truly care, and sometimes they are the right people. In many parts of the world, we see successful conservation through a 'change of skin' where the community's soul is preserved because local policy and zoning laws actually worked to protect the sector.
Those tools exist for a reason, and they only fulfill their purpose when the community has a real voice. There are inspiring cases of this happening globally, but I understand: in this particular story, that simply wasn't the case."
Sadly this is not a new issue. In 2008 a large Asian food market in Colindale, Oriental City, was forced to close, leaving around 800 people unemployed, and closing many established businesses. I was heartbroken by the closure, more so for the business owners that created a warm, welcoming hub. Like Mercato Metropolitano, Oriental City was a thriving hub, but for London based Asian communities, many elderly, and the closure proved devastating. The building was due to be demolished to make way for a £450 million redevelopment, which would have included a primary school and flats, as well as room for the traders to return, but the site is now in the hands of administrators after the proposed £68 million sale to B&S Properties fell through last March. Sadly Oriental City didn't re open, and it wasn't until 2017 that Bang Bang was opened in it's place, run by The Royal China Group. By then it was too late for many of the former businesses.
The UK has never embraced food-court culture, and we're poorer for it. These spaces make eating out affordable and accessible. They create social hubs that don't revolve around alcohol. They give independent operators a foothold in a country where running a hospitality business is otherwise financially brutal. And they create employment within the communities they serve.
With Mercato Metropolitano's closure, the same pattern repeats: a community unravels, businesses collapse, incomes disappear, as well as a huge loss of employment overall.
Sadly I don't know what can be done. London, like so many others, runs on the logic of financial gain, not community support. Profit over people, every time.
We've long wanted to do an oral history of Oriental City, which was truly a one-of-a-kind place in London. What it did was so ahead of its time, but has not been rivalled - I guess its biggest legacy lives on, not in Bang Bang, but in the success of Roti King.
I was actually most sad for the boys from Ipoh, and their outstanding Roti Canai. My daughter, 6 at the time it closed, cried at the thought of not having Roti Canai again. I remember asking them what they were going to do and they had no idea. I was so happy to see them again in Euston. And love seeing their continued success. I work at Battersea Power Station, Roti King is almost the only place I will eat. My daughter now lives in Sheffield, but we always go when she's down.
There is a significant issue that the author and others are missing here.
Mercato Metropolitano was a meanwhile use. The site was always going to be redeveloped. The traders were always going to have to move.
The repercussions of articles like this are that fewer landlords will want to voluntarily house a meanwhile use if they are criticised for a use coming to an end that was always meant to come to an end. Their public relations team will tell them it's not worth the perceived risk of reputational damage.
Realistically Peabody could have put the vacant site to all kinds of interim uses, storage for example. Agreeing a meanwhile use with MM was something they chose to do rather than had to do.
If we want to see meanwhile uses like Mercato Metropolitano emerge in new locations then we must accept they will come to an end elsewhere.
An interesting piece but the shopping centre closed because it was scheduled to close (to be redeveloped into a new shopping centre) and everyone knew it. You can try to claim that MM was a rather on-the-nose counterpoint to the decline of the shopping centre, but you’re wrong if you think the two are intrinsically linked.
The shopping centre was largely a depressing shitbox, by the way, not the vibrant ethnic market of your imagination. Similarly nobody in their right mind thought MM somehow proved that Elephant had now arrived and was basically Chelsea with better transport links.
MM Elephant was meant to last a year or two. It’s still here, just about. Rather like the shopping centre, its lustre has faded quite a bit over the years. I dare say the people in charge have done well out of it, and the brand has opened other branches in different parts of London over the years.
It very much depends on what point you came to it. I covered Elephant and Castle extensively in the years up to it being demolished and it was very clear that all the faults of the centre were mostly to do with its neglect and managed decline, particularly after the point that the centre's demolition had been confirmed. It was run-down and shabby, and needed renovation, but I would argue that Kaieteur Kitchen, La Bodeguita, and the Caribbean food at the bingo hall were all more interesting and, more importantly, used, than anything that has replaced it.
I don't think the article was suggesting that the opening of Mercato was linked to the shopping centre closing, apart from being part of the same set of forces changing the area. I do remember though, the media that surrounded MM, very much positioning it as the only thing going on in Elephant and neglecting that there were better, long-standing businesses just down the road.
I'd be curious to know how they worked out business rates at mercato in their original model. I think in central locations what has often been compelling for operators about becoming a more 'pop-up' type tenant in a 'meanwhile' space has been not having to enter into rateable value that would require business rates but still being really visible in a central location. Sometimes landowners are absorbing this cost into the rent, or even they may just not get rated as the business is essentially a caravan. I'd guess it also makes a difference versus taking tenancy within a shopping centre or high street in a central location where you will almost certainly have to pay something as it will be on that rating list already somewhere... Adds even more risks and rewards to this already tricky balance of the changing moods of how Londoners consider 'street food' and where they will go for it
I feel this is where London’s councils need to be more actively involved in shaping development.
Too much of it is budget led - this years Section 106 money to prop up a leisure centre, and the predicted council tax returns from X units of Y value - unaffordable housing bringing in greater revenue, even better when unoccupied - and not enough in having a 10-20 year out vision on what a place will be like to live in.
I can’t believe every councillor wants a mini-Westfield with a small pitch of curated independent businesses kept well away from the chain food hall in the middle . . . and exorbitant rents where only Black Rock wins.
Great piece. I lived a few minutes away from the Elephant and Castle shopping centre in 2012-2013 and still can't get over the fact it's no longer there.
I wasn’t even aware of the existence in Elephant & Castle when I used to live in London. I loved the initial vision and dynamic of the market - community focussed, making food accessible. Interesting, and at the same time not surprising how the energy shifted once management changed.
Did you speak with the new management of Mercato? From what I know, the situation is very different from the one you’re describing. It seems that your narrative may have been influenced by Rasca’s perspective and does not fully reflect the current reality of the business.
I used to study around there and have now come so so so far from who I was then, this article feels like a reminder of that. How great something can be but also how change is… just inevitable ig
This is a beautiful necessary reflection. It’s heartbreaking to see a place that fostered such genuine connection being replaced by the very forces it helped to attract.
As an architect, I’ve always been fascinated by how the spaces we inhabit change their skin. We often see neighborhoods evolve, but it’s a tragedy when that metamorphosis serves profit over the origin, stripping away the soul of a community. When we lose anchors of convivialité like this, we don't just lose a market; we lose the right to inhabit the city together. Thank you for this powerful piece.
I guess the question underpinning this is ‘who cares’… both in its direct meaning and the deeper one of who will care.
As a nearby resident the changes in Elephant have been astounding, but also unnerving. What was once a very unique place is transforming into a sameness of many other parts of London.
It still has difference (for instance we now have a large HK Chinese community, and so three quite good Asian food stores) but that difference feels artificial, carefully created so that you don’t notice unless you really want to, unless you care… and as I watch people around here go about their daily business, it is apparent that many don’t care, about what they’re losing or what’s replacing it all.
I agree, not all changes of skin are for the better. It often feels like a forced metamorphosis rather than natural growth.
However, I still believe that in all areas of life, there are always a few who truly care, and sometimes they are the right people. In many parts of the world, we see successful conservation through a 'change of skin' where the community's soul is preserved because local policy and zoning laws actually worked to protect the sector.
Those tools exist for a reason, and they only fulfill their purpose when the community has a real voice. There are inspiring cases of this happening globally, but I understand: in this particular story, that simply wasn't the case."
Sadly this is not a new issue. In 2008 a large Asian food market in Colindale, Oriental City, was forced to close, leaving around 800 people unemployed, and closing many established businesses. I was heartbroken by the closure, more so for the business owners that created a warm, welcoming hub. Like Mercato Metropolitano, Oriental City was a thriving hub, but for London based Asian communities, many elderly, and the closure proved devastating. The building was due to be demolished to make way for a £450 million redevelopment, which would have included a primary school and flats, as well as room for the traders to return, but the site is now in the hands of administrators after the proposed £68 million sale to B&S Properties fell through last March. Sadly Oriental City didn't re open, and it wasn't until 2017 that Bang Bang was opened in it's place, run by The Royal China Group. By then it was too late for many of the former businesses.
The UK has never embraced food-court culture, and we're poorer for it. These spaces make eating out affordable and accessible. They create social hubs that don't revolve around alcohol. They give independent operators a foothold in a country where running a hospitality business is otherwise financially brutal. And they create employment within the communities they serve.
With Mercato Metropolitano's closure, the same pattern repeats: a community unravels, businesses collapse, incomes disappear, as well as a huge loss of employment overall.
Sadly I don't know what can be done. London, like so many others, runs on the logic of financial gain, not community support. Profit over people, every time.
We've long wanted to do an oral history of Oriental City, which was truly a one-of-a-kind place in London. What it did was so ahead of its time, but has not been rivalled - I guess its biggest legacy lives on, not in Bang Bang, but in the success of Roti King.
I was actually most sad for the boys from Ipoh, and their outstanding Roti Canai. My daughter, 6 at the time it closed, cried at the thought of not having Roti Canai again. I remember asking them what they were going to do and they had no idea. I was so happy to see them again in Euston. And love seeing their continued success. I work at Battersea Power Station, Roti King is almost the only place I will eat. My daughter now lives in Sheffield, but we always go when she's down.
An excellent, insightful piece - a thoughtful,detailed exposition of something we're seeing happen across London.
There is a significant issue that the author and others are missing here.
Mercato Metropolitano was a meanwhile use. The site was always going to be redeveloped. The traders were always going to have to move.
The repercussions of articles like this are that fewer landlords will want to voluntarily house a meanwhile use if they are criticised for a use coming to an end that was always meant to come to an end. Their public relations team will tell them it's not worth the perceived risk of reputational damage.
Realistically Peabody could have put the vacant site to all kinds of interim uses, storage for example. Agreeing a meanwhile use with MM was something they chose to do rather than had to do.
If we want to see meanwhile uses like Mercato Metropolitano emerge in new locations then we must accept they will come to an end elsewhere.
An interesting piece but the shopping centre closed because it was scheduled to close (to be redeveloped into a new shopping centre) and everyone knew it. You can try to claim that MM was a rather on-the-nose counterpoint to the decline of the shopping centre, but you’re wrong if you think the two are intrinsically linked.
The shopping centre was largely a depressing shitbox, by the way, not the vibrant ethnic market of your imagination. Similarly nobody in their right mind thought MM somehow proved that Elephant had now arrived and was basically Chelsea with better transport links.
MM Elephant was meant to last a year or two. It’s still here, just about. Rather like the shopping centre, its lustre has faded quite a bit over the years. I dare say the people in charge have done well out of it, and the brand has opened other branches in different parts of London over the years.
It very much depends on what point you came to it. I covered Elephant and Castle extensively in the years up to it being demolished and it was very clear that all the faults of the centre were mostly to do with its neglect and managed decline, particularly after the point that the centre's demolition had been confirmed. It was run-down and shabby, and needed renovation, but I would argue that Kaieteur Kitchen, La Bodeguita, and the Caribbean food at the bingo hall were all more interesting and, more importantly, used, than anything that has replaced it.
I don't think the article was suggesting that the opening of Mercato was linked to the shopping centre closing, apart from being part of the same set of forces changing the area. I do remember though, the media that surrounded MM, very much positioning it as the only thing going on in Elephant and neglecting that there were better, long-standing businesses just down the road.
Thank you for such a great read, really enjoyed!
I'd be curious to know how they worked out business rates at mercato in their original model. I think in central locations what has often been compelling for operators about becoming a more 'pop-up' type tenant in a 'meanwhile' space has been not having to enter into rateable value that would require business rates but still being really visible in a central location. Sometimes landowners are absorbing this cost into the rent, or even they may just not get rated as the business is essentially a caravan. I'd guess it also makes a difference versus taking tenancy within a shopping centre or high street in a central location where you will almost certainly have to pay something as it will be on that rating list already somewhere... Adds even more risks and rewards to this already tricky balance of the changing moods of how Londoners consider 'street food' and where they will go for it
I feel this is where London’s councils need to be more actively involved in shaping development.
Too much of it is budget led - this years Section 106 money to prop up a leisure centre, and the predicted council tax returns from X units of Y value - unaffordable housing bringing in greater revenue, even better when unoccupied - and not enough in having a 10-20 year out vision on what a place will be like to live in.
I can’t believe every councillor wants a mini-Westfield with a small pitch of curated independent businesses kept well away from the chain food hall in the middle . . . and exorbitant rents where only Black Rock wins.
Great piece. I lived a few minutes away from the Elephant and Castle shopping centre in 2012-2013 and still can't get over the fact it's no longer there.
Great read, thank you for bringing this to light.
I wasn’t even aware of the existence in Elephant & Castle when I used to live in London. I loved the initial vision and dynamic of the market - community focussed, making food accessible. Interesting, and at the same time not surprising how the energy shifted once management changed.
Hopefully this is not the end of the story.
Great article
Did you speak with the new management of Mercato? From what I know, the situation is very different from the one you’re describing. It seems that your narrative may have been influenced by Rasca’s perspective and does not fully reflect the current reality of the business.
I used to study around there and have now come so so so far from who I was then, this article feels like a reminder of that. How great something can be but also how change is… just inevitable ig