THE SPATIAL CONFIGURATION OF STREET MARKETS IN INNER LONDON

Study on public space design and street markets in Greater London (Part II)

Abstract

 This paper constitutes the second part of an on-going research on street markets in Greater London. While the first part is literature-based and focuses on the management and effects of markets, this paper comprises an extensive fieldwork of the spatial configuration of all active street markets run by local councils in Inner London. The survey has been conducted at the scales of the stall, the street, and the overall market. At the street scale we classify the configuration of markets into 10 types according to three criteria: number of traffic lanes, the application or not of road closure to traffic, and the number of the stall rows. Finally we discuss several noteworthy aspects in relation with the street markets in Japan, such as the flexibility of the setting, the narrowness of the market passages, the pedestrianization or the role of markets as a reinforcement of existing retail areas.