Paddy’s Market

Paddy’s Market – The Final Curtain

A flea market and Glasgow institution going back over two hundred years was typecast an eyesore and not fit for a modern Glasgow. Masked as a regeneration project by Glasgow City Council (GCC) and supported by local media and misleading crime statistics, the market traders fought a hard battle to keep the market open and to save their livelihoods. Most regeneration projects are to the east and north of the city, far from the view of tourists and councillors.  Paddy’s Market was situated in the heart of the city centre and it was viewed as being too close, too visible, and a real threat to those who felt the market no longer had a part in a 21st Century Glasgow.

The market – whose name is derived from the high number of Irish traders, many of whom were migrants from the Irish famine – was the oldest in the city with origins dating back to the 1820s. It had been in Shipbank lane since 1935 and had served generations of the city’s poor, unemployed and its immigrant population. Despite it being a thriving market and having a historical influence on Glasgow for many decades, a misleading and negative PR campaign by GCC was implemented to push for its closure.

Paddy’s Market was bordered by The Merchant City – a recently developed area of shops, expensive restaurants and boutiques.  It is the consumerist image that Glasgow wants to portray to both its citizens and tourists. The younger professionals living and working in the area were glad to see the back of  Paddy’s and are behind the idea to ‘regenerate’ it. For the other communities of Glasgow – the poor, the asylum seekers and those who have a romanticism with the old Glasgow – the market was their lifeline and the heart of a community.

Described by Baillie George Matheson as a “crime-ridden midden”, crime statistics for the area around Paddy’s Market include drug dealing, prostitution and assault. In 2005/2006, police reported almost 850 crimes in the area, including one attempted murder.  But what wasn’t mentioned in the press was the fact that the market closed at 2pm every day and the vast majority of the crimes took place in the evenings when the market area effectively became a public lane. The market was also neighboured by Hope House – a hostel for homeless drug addicts.  Media reports and the council claim that it was Paddy’s Market that was responsible for the high level of crime in the area.  However, in minutes obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act, Strathclyde Police themselves stressed that it was not the traders of the Paddy’s Market who are the cause of the crime and noted Hope House as being “a major crime generator”. But if the market were to be closed it would have a “huge positive impact on the level of crime being committed in the area”. Traders continually voiced their innocence throughout a long year long battle to save the market but GCC took over the lease of the market site in May 2009 and shut it down with immediate effect.

The council and local press claim there are plans to turn the market into a showcase for artists of different ethnic backgrounds – a mini Camden Market for Glasgow.  To date no plans have been made public or any business proposal put forward for such a development and most traders feel the area will lie dormant for years.  They feel they have been used as a scapegoat for crime, been misrepresented and demonized. The area of land they have worked on for generations is now viewed as commercial real estate and Paddy’s Market, its traders, its customers, and its ethos doesn’t fit with the way Glasgow City Council want to portray the city. I documented Paddy’s Market and its initial fight for survival in April 2008 right through to its final day of trading in May 2009.  I am planning an exhibition to be held in the Barra’s Market in Glasgow in May 2010 to mark the one year anniversary of the closure of Paddy’s Market – sign up to my mailing list for more details