Tooting Market 1980s onwards
More smoke!
Entries in the 1980 Post Office Directory indicate that perhaps tastes were starting to change with the appearance of stalls selling jewellery, gifts, greeting cards and a sandwich-come-grill bar, but in essence not much had changed.
Emanuel, Pater, Brafman, Eggee Ltd and Express Key Cutting were still trading, as were O’Grady’s pet stores and Garfield’s shoes. Stannard now appears, having taken over the butcher’s stall at number 25 in the late sixties.
A sign of the times was perhaps the arrival of a stall selling artificial flowers, most probably run by Max Fox’s wife Fay.
In 1980 the Boddington’s had a tobacconist’s stall at number 1 Tooting Market run by Peter. It had a prime position on the corner of the High Street entrance opposite the greengrocer’s Emanuel. Not only did Peter sell cigarettes but was known to be a chain smoker himself.
In 1997 owner Peter Boddington hit the headlines, not because of any bold initiatives he’d introduced to the market but because of his protracted two-year legal battle with a railway operator which had imposed a cigarette ban on its trains.
It was stated that Mr Boddington, a 60-a-day smoker who sold cut price cigarettes in Tooting Market, was originally fined £10 for smoking on a non-smoking train between his home in Brighton and London. Facing prison for continuing to flout the law he took his case to the High Court and the Court of Appeal in what he saw as a wider battle for smokers’ rights on trains.
BBC News reported on the long running case after the Lords dismissed his appeal.nPeter Boddington’s battle had cost him dear as he was apparently out of pocket by several tens of thousands of pounds.
Commenting on the outcome BBC News explained that Mr Boddington now travels home on trains operated by Virgin where he is allowed to puff away.
With thanks to BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/72813.stm
Queen of the Market
In the late 1990s, Gloria Reid opened a stall in Tooting Market selling Caribbean food. Known as Miss G she was a popular character with customers and traders alike and always had a story to tell. Over the years she featured in many articles written about the market as well as being a favourite subject for photographers.
An image taken in 2020 by local award-winning photographer, Alex Lambert appeared in both the 2020 Portrait of Britain and Time Out. https://www.alexlambertphotography.com/
Gloria was a migrant who settled seamlessly into British life. Born in Jamaica in 1943 she came to England at the age of 15 and led a hugely interesting life working firstly as a hairdresser then using her sewing skills at a coat factory in Liverpool Street. For a time she was a model and featured on a number of album covers for Reggae music.
During an interview she summed up her love for this country with these unequivocal words:
‘You will not find another country like this. If you are livin’ in England, you are livin’ good! There’s nothing better than the English. I’m not going to ever live nowhere else’. https://www.migrationstories.org.uk/interviews.html
Gloria sadly passed away in 2022, having run her stall for over 25 years, and is much missed amongst her market family. As a lasting tribute, her iconic shop sign hangs above the Totterdown Street entrance to Tooting Market.
The end of an era
Records show Peter Boddington as a director and his mother Eileen as a secretary of The Tooting Development Company operating from Stall 1 of Tooting Market from 1995.
Eileen Boddington died in 2002, and son Peter in 2004 at the relatively young age of 50. He was outlived by his father George who died in 2009 aged 82. The market then passed to Patricia Boddington, George’s second wife. In 2010 Tooting Market was sold to its current owners.
What continuity of ownership for nigh on 80 years; just two names feature – Powell and Boddington.
Award Winning Market
Now well into the twenty-first century Tooting Market continues to be an essential part of the town’s life and commerce and has won multiple awards.
It has evolved and diversified reflecting changes in the area and the need to satisfy current trends. Some of the old stalls can still be found but there are new shops too, many of them food outlets.
Tooting itself was recently named as one of the top 10 coolest neighbourhoods in the world by Lonely Planet with the best shopping in Tooting Market.
Plus ça change…
However some things never change. More than 90 years on, there is still a fruiterers at the High Street entrance, although no longer run by the Emanuel family.
The family run Stannard’s butchers is a Tooting Market institution and currently its longest-serving trader, having been established in 1966.
This was the site of James Powell’s original shop in 1930, shown below at the opening. A butcher’s shop has therefore existed on this same site for 94 years.
Interestingly, the site of the old Tooting Market in Mitcham Road has not been completely erased by development.
Taken in 2022 a photo shows the left side of the Woolworth’s ‘mammoth store’ which was partially built on the site of the old market after the fire in 1930. The passageway leading to the rear can be seen to the left.
By the 1950s that side (no 17) housed a jewellery store, Edwin Selgrove. The name Selgrove is just visible behind the no entry sign
100 Years on……..
In addition, a 2023 aerial view of Mitcham Road reveals that the old market yard still exists with a very similar footprint to that shown on a 1923 plan. It’s survived over 100 years.
A remarkable family link to Tooting Market
The 1957 commemorative edition of the Balham and Tooting Gazette has an image from 1889 showing the old Angel Inn with Angel Court to the left. The sign for Angel Court is just visible.
The caption reads:
The Angel Hotel High Street, Tooting, in 1889.
One of the stopping places of the stage coach from London.
Angel Court on the left of the picture was replaced by the Tooting Market
As we know, Tooting Market was constructed on the site of Angel Court in 1930, the latter having been bought by James Evans Powell in 1925. Some 20 years earlier the 1901 Census and the Electoral Registers for 1903, 1905 and 1908 list the residents of Angel Court.
In all these records Francis Kitz is shown residing at 5 Angel Court.
How remarkable because Frank Kitz (1849-1923) was my great grandfather!
A dyer by trade, KItz was employed during the 1880s by William Morris at his Merton Abbey Works. However, he was not just an employee but also a ‘comrade’ helping Morris with propaganda and speeches for the socialist cause.
In 2022 a blue plaque was erected to this ‘Champion of the workers’ at Wandle Bank, Merton, where my grandmother was born in 1886.
Who knows, perhaps these family ties inevitably drew me into telling The Untold Story of Tooting Market.
I hope my great grandfather Frank would have approved, after all it was right up his street!
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