Lucinda Rogers At Ridley Rd Market II
In the second of this series, Contributing Artist Lucinda Rogers & I visit Ridley Rd Market in Dalston to meet some of the traders featured in her current exhibition Lucinda Rogers: On Gentrification – Drawings of Ridley Rd Market at House of Illustration in Kings Cross until March
Soniya and Tariq
Soniya – “I started in Chapel Market in 2002. I had my baby and I was out with my mum when we saw a sign advertising for a shop assistant, but when I went in to enquire they gave me such a filthy look, so I said to my mum, ‘I’m going to open my own stall.’ At first, I bought £100 worth of soap and set up a soap stall, but that was not right for me. After that, I set up a juice stall. I bought everything I needed off the internet and set up the stall in my living room to try it out. Then I came here to Ridley Rd Market as a casual trader in 2015. At first, they put my stall at the top end but after six months I came down this end and I have a permanent pitch here now. When my son was four years old, he told me I was his ‘Honey Angel,’ so when the bank asked me the name of my business, I told them ‘Honey Angel Juices.'”
Sarje’s stall
Sarjeet Singh – “My brother had a stall on Kingsland Waste in the seventies and I helped him in 1973. It was so cold, I could not imagine working there, but as I got older I started by myself selling novelty items and flags from around the world, they are very popular when the football season comes. I also worked as roadie for Frankie Paul, John Holt, Dennis Brown, UB40 and Commander Cody. Ridley Rd is a great market, I have been here since ‘seventy-six and I have not got bored yet. It is a very honest place. You have to be honest in the market because otherwise it comes back to bite you. A woman left a purse here with seven hundred pounds in cash on my stall recently and I kept it for her. She came back and asked, ‘Did I leave my purse here?'”
Red, yellow and green landscape at Greg’s stall
Gregory Spyris – “I arrived in London on a Tuesday and started work on this stall on the Wednesday, and that was forty years ago! I came for my brother’s wedding and I stayed in this country. For twenty-four years, I had two shops but I sold them and just had this stall for the past twenty years or so, selling West Indian and African groceries. I have family here now, children and grandchildren, and I only go back to Cyprus for holidays.
Drawings copyright © Lucinda Rogers
Lucinda Rogers: On Gentrification – Drawings from Ridley Rd Market is open at House of Illustration, Tuesday – Sunday from 10am-6pm until 25th March
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Lucinda Rogers at Ridley Rd Market
Great drawings, Ridley Road seems to have changed a lot from the time when I used to go shopping there with my great aunt! Valerie
Again, lovely, intricate work. Gregg’s stall looks as if it took weeks to sketch.
I love your unique style of drawing.
The way you emphasis some things and leave out some minor details.
Lovely work.
nice work,
My maternal grandfather, Bert Idenden was a market trader in 1920s & 1930s. He did different markets: Ridley Road, “The Waste” Kingsland Road and Leather Lane. His stall was bits of this and that, toiletries, cleaning stuff, a bit like a Pound Shop. But some weeks he only made a pound. While still at school my uncle had to help on the stall on Saturdays; it stood him in good stead as he eventually ran his own business. I remember Ridley Road for the ice cream cornets that had a chocolate button on top. Also the apple fritters and sarsaparilla drinks, which came in three different colours at The Waste.