INFORM
C H R I STO P H E R M A RT I N BREAD, BLOOD AND BOOZE
MARKETPLACES CAN CREATE CITY-DEFINING URBAN SPACES, SAYS CHRISTOPHER MARTIN
T
©RossHelen/Shutterstock.com
he realisation that this year I wasn’t going to be afford what has come to mean a summer holiday for me over the years – walking the streets of a city somewhere in the world at all hours, getting under the skin of it, and finding its most enjoyable, most human, and most hedonistic pockets – has filled me with slight melancholy and longing. As a panacea for the pain, I started to think about all the places that have grabbed my attention in recent years, to see if I can instead find what I am looking for closer to home. It didn’t take long to put my finger on what it was I was after. The slightly chaotic, intoxicating, and anachronistic working marketplace in the centre of cities that both feeds and entertains; is a place of serious business and serious release. Marketplaces like the ones I am picturing existed in every city, and the Meatpacking District in NYC tells a common story. Once a thriving, working, playing market, the area started to decline in the 60s as a result of the containerisation of freight; the advent of supermarkets and the development of frozen foods and refrigerated trucks to deliver them. Meat packing remained the principal trade in this area of NYC through the 70s, but as was common to London as well, nightclubs and other
entertainment operations began to enjoy these environments as well. And it is easy to see why – Meatpacking and Smithfield are the perfect places for night-time activities because the
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Christopher Martin.indd 35
market culture meant that noise, life and activity was already in place when the clubbers were queueing up, so there existed a strange harmony. London and NYC are unquestionably special places, and hosting the regional market is not the job of every city of course, but it is the experience of an urban market that I am longing for and struggling to find. The Spanish are leading the way in maintaining and nurturing this city centre phenomenon. Every city in Spain has a market hall which is council-owned and are just as key
THE CENTRAL URBAN MARKETPLACE IS HOW WE RECONNECT AND MOVE BACK TO MORE OF AN EQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN PEOPLE, PLACE, FOOD, AND CLIMATE to the identity of the place as the often-adjacent cathedrals and squares. There are great examples elsewhere, but Mercado Central Valencia, Mercato di Rialto, Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon, Tsukiji in Tokyo, Mahane Yehuda Market, and Nuovo Mercato di Testaccio in Rome are all great examples where the city connects with the food that sustains it, people connect with each other, and the city is bought to life with people socialising, eating what they have bought in the inevitable market bar, and drinking. I am clearly not alone in my desire for these places; Pike Place Market is one of many markets that is now more full with Instagram users than people taking part, and there is a lesson for us all
in the fact that when Barcelona restored the Sant Antoni market in 2018 it looked to discourage gentrification, seeing the market as both social and commercial, critical to local identity. For fading, faded, and falling central markets ©Checubus/Shutterstock.com around the UK, it would be great if we can collectively recognise that the continuity of food markets in central urban locations is a critical component of culture and identity, but also health and happiness. The balance between cities and the landscape that feeds us is growing further apart, and this impacts everything from logistics to our mental state and levels of stress. Throughout history, people were more connected to the landscape and to food; the central urban marketplace is how we reconnect and move back to more of an equilibrium between people, place, food, and climate. The slightly chaotic, intoxicating, and anachronistic working marketplace in the centre of a city is essential – it feeds us all.
A BOU T C H RISTOP HER MARTIN Christopher is an influential urban designer and planner working all over the globe to help communities improve their public spaces; as well as supporting cities and governments to develop strategy, change policies, and make great places possible. He is co-founder and director of Urban Strategy at Urban Movement; a trustee of the UK charity for everyday walking – Living Streets; vice chair of the UK Urban Design Group; and is a member of the United Nations Planning and Climate Action Group.
www.urbanmovement.co.uk
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