Borough Market wholesalers sue trust in lease row
It claims to be the biggest and may be one of the oldest food markets in the world, and has been at the heart of Britain’s gastronomic boom over recent years. But a storm is gathering at Borough Market in south London, whose trustees have been accused of trying to force out wholesalers based there for generations in the pursuit of greater profits.
Fruit and vegetable merchants are suing the charity that runs the market in a dispute over lease agreements that could end in their eviction.
They accuse the trust’s managers of attempting to capitalise on the market’s growing international reputation as a foodie destination by bringing in more lucrative high-end retailers.
Separately, some stallholders are furious that the trustees have been subjecting them to anonymous taste-testing, which they claim is biased against traditional and cheaper products.
The last three remaining fruit and vegetable wholesalers based at permanent stalls have launched a High Court case against the market’s trustees, claiming they have reneged on an agreement to guarantee them leases until at least 2014.
The trustees of Borough Market (Southwark) insist they will fight the case, which they argue has been provoked unnecessarily by out-of-touch traders who do not want to engage with a changing market.
The wholesalers‘ case Agatha Ruiz Dela Prada Online Shopping has been backed by a former chairman of the trust. George Nicholson, who oversaw Bicester Village Prada Refund Borough market’s expansion for 11 years until 2006, said that the wholesale market was the foundation stone on which its international reputation had been built.
„It is very sad to see the brand tarnished by such wanton stupidity from the current trustees and management. All this was avoidable. The trustees are endangering the market’s public purpose and the market has lost its way,“ he said.
Tens of thousands of food lovers are drawn every weekend to the market, which traces its history at least to the 13th century but may date as far Authentic Prada Bag For Sale Ph back as Roman times. Originally based at the southern side of London bridge, its 100 or so stalls now occupy a network of railway viaducts near the Thames in Southwark.
Tourists arrive by coach to soak in the atmosphere amid displays of game, British cheese, organic fruits, artisan breads and cold-pressed olive oils, while the market’s cobbled streets and covered walkways have been used as the backdrop to films such as Bridget Jones’s Diary and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
The dispute goes to the heart of the market, the wholesalers say. They claim that its success has grown out of the close relationship between wholesalers of staple British fare and high quality „delicatessen“ retailers who have moved in over the past Black Prada Doctor Bag decade.
The three claimants argue that their case is a fight to preserve the market as a centre of culinary excellence. Andy Sugarman, 51, the chairman of the market’s tenants‘ association whose company EA Sugarman