ROMFORD MARKET: WHERE HAVE ALL THE STALLS GONE? The Shocking Difference Between Then And Now.
Once a huge 600-pitch market packed with traders and shoppers, Romford Market today has a fraction of the stalls it once had. So what happened to one of the town’s most famous institutions?
Walk through Romford Market today and it can be difficult to imagine just how enormous the market once was.
For generations, Romford Market was the beating heart of the town centre.
But the numbers tell a remarkable story.
Back in 1990, Parliament recorded that Romford Market had approximately 600 stall places.
The market was so large that MPs debating the future of markets described it as a substantial market with around 300 traders, many of whom operated two stalls, with some having three.
It was a very different Romford.
Fast forward more than three decades and Havering Council now describes Romford Market as having more than 150 stalls on offer.
That is a dramatic difference.
Even allowing for the fact that the historic figure refers to pitch capacity while today’s figure refers to stalls, the contrast is difficult to ignore.
600 pitch spaces then. More than 150 stalls now.
The market has gone from being a huge expanse of traders to something considerably smaller.
And for many long-standing residents, that decline is something they don’t need statistics to tell them.
They remember a market that felt busy, packed and alive.
A market where you could walk through row after row of stalls, browse a huge variety of goods and find traders who had become familiar faces.
Today, the market still operates every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and remains an important part of Romford’s identity.
But the question has to be asked:
Where have all the stalls gone?
The decline did not happen overnight.
Shopping habits have changed dramatically.
The rise of supermarkets, shopping centres, online shopping and changing consumer behaviour have all transformed the retail landscape.
Romford itself has also changed.
The town centre has seen the loss of major retailers, changing footfall patterns, empty premises and increasing competition from out-of-town and online shopping.
And the market has had to compete for customers in a completely different retail world.
Havering Council’s own documents acknowledge that the market has changed significantly.
A 2020 recovery plan noted that, whereas in the past the market had occupied the entire Market Place, the existing number of stalls created a much more dispersed pattern of trading and a lack of the critical mass that had previously existed.
At that time, the council recorded around 60 traders occupying 122 pitches, with many traders using double pitches.
The council even considered rationalising the market into approximately half of the Market Place.
That gives an extraordinary picture of the journey.
From around 600 pitch spaces and approximately 300 traders in 1990 to a market where the council recorded 60 traders using 122 pitches in 2020.
And today the council says there are more than 150 stalls on offer.
Romford Market is nearly 800 years old.
It survived wars, recessions, changing shopping habits and enormous changes to the town around it.
But its biggest challenge may now be keeping enough traders and shoppers coming through its gates to maintain the atmosphere that made it famous.
Because a market is about much more than simply putting stalls in a town centre.
It is about atmosphere.
It is about choice.
It is about traders knowing their customers.
It is about people coming into town specifically because they want to visit the market.
And perhaps most importantly, it is about having enough stalls to make the market feel like a market.
There is no doubt that Romford Market remains an important part of the town.
But compare today’s market with the huge market remembered by older generations and the difference is startling.
600 pitch spaces in 1990. More than 150 stalls today.
That isn’t simply a change in numbers.
It is a snapshot of how dramatically Romford’s town centre has changed.
And perhaps the biggest question of all is this:
Can Romford ever bring back the bustling market that so many residents remember?
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