Market jitters over future Traders fear for decline of Birmingham’s traditional outdoor Bull Ring stalls
WITHOUT its market, Birmingham may never have existed. The old Bull Ring has been a focal point for traders for more than 850 years.
It was Peter de Birmingham, who held the lordship of the then village, who obtained a market charter from Henry II in 1166.
After the rapidly expanding Birmingham became the heartbeat of the Industrial Revolution, its famous market then survived two world wars.
An outdoor market was retained following the development of the Bull Ring Shopping Centre in 1964 and then it was recreated again during the area’s redevelopment into the current ‘Bullring’ in 2003.
But, with the city’s Wholesale Market having moved to Witton in May this year, there are now fears for its future.
Some traders claim they face “a lack of care from the council” and higher car parking charges now the Wholesale Market has moved.
Those without their own vans said they were now having to pay £10 a pallet to bring in supplies from Witton via a shared lorry – and that has seen produce prices rise.
All wanted a brighter future – but none were optimistic things would improve anytime soon.
Veteran trader Eamonn Daly has been on the market for 40 years and now has two artificial knees to keep him going.
The lifelong costermonger said the council and traders alike needed to share responsibility to save the market he loves.
“The quality of produce has destroyed the customer base. It’s gone down rapidly over two-andhalf-years.
“The good stuff is down at the Wholesale Market if you want to pay the price and buy it, but others don’t want to pay the price.
“And if you buy cheap stuff, obviously it’s got a short shelf life.”
But does the council take the market seriously enough these days?
“I don’t think they do because they’ve let the decline happen,” he says. “I’ve complained several times. They just want to let the market run its course.”
What would he do ning the council?
“I’d definitely sharpen on the quality of the fruit.
“Advertise it a bit more and make sure that you can come down and trust the trader.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is market traders still bellowing their bargains in traditional fashion.
“That used to draw people in,” says Mr Daly.
“When there’s plenty of people about, you shout your wares as such. A customer would think ‘I’ve just heard ‘£1 a box’ and they would toddle off over there to have a look at them.
“I used to roar my head off. if he was run- others up
“I used to enjoy coming to work. You would have fun between yourselves, fun with the customers, a laugh and a joke.
“But some of these customers now just want to spend a pound and they are as grumpy as anything.”
One regular market user, John Burton, revealed his fears, too. He said: “Traders are continually complaining of the lack of customers whilst their rents are rising.
“It can only be a matter of time before the decline becomes terminal and we lose yet another part of Brum’s history.”
Leading City historian Professor Carl Chinn has long campaigned for the city council to take the Bull Ring Market more seriously. “It’s the one common continuous thread of the city’s entire history, but there has been a serious lack of care, imagination and support,” he says. “It’s time the council listened to both traders and customers instead of just telling them things. That is how it would improve. “The market has a vital role, because, in a city that is increasingly for the rich, it’s the one place where people from every ethnicity can meet. “I am saddened the council seems unwilling and unable to give the markets the priority they deserve. “To make the markets more exciting, they need more attractive stalls of the kind I saw in Derbyshire when I gave a talk for the markets’ federation. “They need buskers and entertainment. “During the 1950s, the market was raucous and gritty, but it was an entertainment centre as well. “It was also a place that drew people in with attractions like speakers and escapologists – and it needs to be that again. The current market is tatty.”
Although Prof Chinn welcomes the return of the German Market from mid-November, he says the council should similarly invest in the Bull Ring Market at Christmas.
He said: “It should be possible to have a proper, Birmingham Christmas Market as well as a German Market so that one is not detracting from the other and they can complement each other.”
Prof Chinn said the decline of the market actually set in after the 1950s.
“When they built the 1964 shopping centre, the Bull Ring market was put on the wrong side of the inner ring road,” he said. “When they built the new Bullring, the three markets were then compartmentalised on the other side of Edgbaston Street.
“There should have been a more holistic approach to encourage people to wander through them all.
“Today you see people walking along Edgbaston Street but less so from the Bullring to the market so it’s as if there is an invisible line along the street.
“When the market was moved there, many of us were disappointed at the lack of thought and investment compared with the Bullring itself.”
He added: “The market needs a radical rethink, investment and support of the kind that the traders and shoppers deserve.”
It’s the one, common, continuous thread of the city’s entire history, but there has been a serious lack of care Carl Chinn