The New Vic
While grub hubs like Honest 2 Goodness and the Temple Bar Food Market have been polyfilling the cracks for years, Dublin’s craving for a permanent food market (the social and culinary node for most of our European counterparts) looks finally ready to be satisfied. The announcement of the submission of long-held plans to redevelop the sprawling Victorian market of Capel Street last month stands as one of the most exciting civic developments since the Crash.
The multi-million euro development will have many people to please, needing to be an effective shopping option for locals, commuters, tourists and locavores (and a wise investment of time and money for its tenants). If the market can successfully encourage the relative inconvenience involved in civilians going out of their way for their Big Shop, the Victorian Market can act as a siphon from the all-consuming power of large, irresponsible supermarkets and the blight of franchise convenience shops that the city suffers from.
We’ve gathered some grand examples of the contemporary souk that the Dublin Rungis can glean ideas from.
Ridley Road Market, Dalston
The inspiration for Eastenders, Ridley Road Market is one of those battlegrounds between traditionalists and gentrifiers. A middle-ground was carved out in the summer of 2011 when interventionist collective The Decorators installed temporary restaurant and social project, Ridley’s. A food-for-food scheme, a shopping list for the menu’s ingredients available at the market was chalked up daily for diners to source and return to the pop-up to have it cooked up for both them and the stall-holders. Relationships between traders and the local hipsterati were established, resulting in a longer term upswing in business and reduced social friction. There are few examples of social credit systems in the city right now (that aren’t painfully insular, anyway), but the popularity of happenings like Street Feast would indicate there’s a hunger for communal dining and socially-conscious culinary events – so long as Bianca Butcher isn’t invited.
The English Market, Cork
This is possibly the first time TD has ever advocated taking tips from our second-city adversaries, but the long-serving arcade is a poke in the eye for any commenters bemoaning our lack of European commercial sophistication. Easily the first destination for any tourist, domestic or international, to the city, the English Market nails the most traditional functions of large marketplaces. The entire social spectrum of the city can be found shopping, eating and bantering, making it a space for intergenerational exchange. Its recovery from devastating fires with a 1990s modernisation marks an admirable dedication to architectural and social heritage which the Victorian market can look to replicate. Importantly, the English Market allows Cork City Council to develop ties with China and encourages sustainable international business, insulating it from domestic economic turbulence. The Brits got this one right.
Brooklyn Night Bazaar, Greenpoint
A more radical use of warehouse space that, realistically, could only be sustained by a population as millennial as Williamsburg-Greenpoint’s, BK Bazaar combines food, fashion, clubbing and mini-golf into one adventurous nocturnal destination. A thousand art students and graphic designers asked to behave responsibly after sun-down may well be the regular stall-holder’s idea of hell, but certainly summer-time late openings and large-scale events should be considered an option.
Words: Daniel Gray // Illustration: Michelle Claesson Eismann
