A buzzing neighbourhood around two of South London’s oldest indoor markets feels like a ‘soap’ as it has so much going on and locals love its friendliness, but is that all about to change?
Locals have said living in the busy area around Tooting Market and Broadway Market, sandwiched between two Northern line Tube stations, can be a ‘nightmare’ for ‘stressed’ residents struggling to park outside their homes.
Local residents and businesses are split over plans to pedestrianise Totterdown Street, outside one of Tooting Market’s entrances, from Tooting High Street to Blakenham Road.
Wandsworth Council is consulting on the proposals, which include adding more greenery and space for outdoor market stalls, before making a final decision.
Joanna Kedzierska lives in Tooting and works as a barista at Broadway Market, which opened in 1936. The 44-year-old said the market is “beautiful” and “everyone knows everybody, they always try to be friendly and help you”.
She added: “Everyone protects everyone else because we need to run the businesses here and it’s good to look out for each other.”
Ms Kedzierska grew up in Italy before moving to France, then London. The singer-songwriter said Tooting is the “best” place in the city and very creative, with great music and food to enjoy after work.
She said the area has “everything” so locals do not have to travel elsewhere to “go out, get food, have good fun”.
Local Claire Jones, 40, also said she likes the area as she knows everyone. “There’s always something going on,” she said, and the market is like a “family unit”.
But the mum described living on her street as a “nightmare” and said she is sometimes forced to park 40 minutes away. She said “everyone” parks there, with the markets and Tooting Broadway Underground Station nearby.
The mum even emailed the council to say: “I’m not happy and, to make us less stressed, how about you give us free parking on our road and no one else can park there apart from residents?”
Ms Jones moved to Tooting 17 years ago thinking it would be quiet, before realising that was not the case just a few months later.
“When I viewed the house, I thought it was quiet. I couldn’t hear a thing. I thought: ‘Oh my God, it’s heaven.’”
The area has got busier, the resident said, and the traffic means drivers have to travel at 20mph regardless of the speed limit. She even installed a dashcam on her car because of the way people use local roads.
She said: “I’ve been taken out by bikes. They don’t stop at the lights because you can’t identify them. It’s like everyone makes their own rules.”
She also slammed the proposals for Totterdown Street. If the part-pedestrianisation goes ahead, she said, it could lead to “people getting stuck”.
But Ms Jones’ friend Ali Reed welcomed the proposals. The 58-year-old runs retro sweet shop The Candy Cane Lounge in Tooting Market, near the Totterdown Street entrance, and said: “As a business, I think it would bring more people. It would be just a nicer area.
“Traffic doesn’t pay attention to it being a one-way street, they whizz down the wrong way, so how there’s not been an accident I don’t know.”
Ms Reed lives in Morden and opened her shop in the market around seven years ago. The market itself opened in 1930.
She loves the area and compared it to a “soap, it’s like there’s always something, and there’s some nice people – we had a £500 record go missing, accidentally put in a guy’s bag, and he brought it back”.
She thinks locals love the vibrant markets and described them as “quite a unique feature to a town”. She added: “It’s a friendly area. In here, it’s a proper community.”
“I don’t know any of my neighbours,” She continued. “You know everybody in here.”
Ms Reed said Tooting has become “more trendy” and wealthier people are moving in, adding: “There’s more money in the area. I hate to say it, but it’s getting gentrified.”
Shamin Begum, 49, has just moved out of Tooting after living in the area for 12 years because rent has become too expensive. She said: “A three-bedroom house is £3,000 [a month] and we can’t afford it… with electricity and council tax, that is a lot.”
She added: “When you own a house that is better. But for people living like me, and the rent, it’s not possible.”
Ms Begum thinks rents have spiralled as Tooting has grown in popularity. She said: “There are lots of different shops, the high street, the station, St George’s Hospital, the University, it’s the basic things, and there are lots of students and doctors that live here… everything is available.”
Ms Begum runs the fashion shop GB Collections in Tooting Market and said: “Now it’s better because there are lots of food and different shops. But before it was very quiet, there was nothing.”
She praised the busy market for being “nice, clean and friendly”, with good management and cheaper prices than Tooting High Street. But parking spaces can be “very expensive” or hard to find as the area is residential, she warned, meaning some people can’t visit.
Neil Smallwood has been working at furniture shop Mad Max on Totterdown Street for three years. The 46-year-old, who lives in Croydon, said Tooting is a “lovely place” with particularly friendly people and two Underground stations “right on top of each other” – Tooting Broadway and Tooting Bec.
About the markets and surrounding streets, he said: “This section is like a little community itself.”
“I’ve only worked here a short time, only been three years, and I’ve made some nice friends in that three years,” he added.
But Mr Smallwood believes the proposals for Totterdown Street would cause difficulties for local businesses and carry the “potential for causing havoc”.
“It’s going to impact a lot of people because there’s nowhere to park on the main roads,” he said.
“These small, little roads are going to get clogged up with delivery vehicles and… some of the vehicles that come down here are quite big, so if they can’t come in there they’re going to try and go down the smaller roads.”
Traders spoke of other challenges facing the markets. Mark Twine, 54, has been working at a fruit and veg stall at Broadway Market for 42 years. He said it has been tough since the Covid-19 pandemic and the market “will never get back the same way” as it was before.
Mr Twine added: “The first couple of months of Covid it was very busy, it’s rubbish now.”
He said the market was “fantastic” when he began working there, and the business even had 15 members of staff – now there are three.
The market has been negatively affected by the opening of big supermarkets locally, he said, such as Aldi on Tooting High Street.
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: “Tooting is one of Wandsworth’s most vibrant town centres with two thriving indoor markets, a wealth of independent specialist businesses and an array of authentic and award-winning bars and restaurants – attracting visitors from across London.
“We are consulting on the pedestrianisation of Totterdown Street to make it healthier and safer local people and businesses.
“The changes would include pedestrianising the street from Tooting High Street to Blakenham Road, as well as more greenery, space for outdoor market stalls and a community event space with tables and chairs.
“There is also potential that Tooting Market could also manage part of the space to facilitate more market stalls, outdoor seating and dining at certain times in the year.”
