In many ways, it can be argued that Borough stands alone in London’s market sector. Why did you get involved in London Markets’ Month (LMM)?

SC: The main reason we became involved is that it opens a dialogue with other markets which we feel is long overdue. We can and should all support each other. The month is about raising understanding of the markets in general, and we have to be a part of that. There is no central overview of markets in London - there are all sorts of different markets, but no umbrella organisation that brings them together. There are some very real threats to market space in London, and unless there is a platform and a unified voice, it can be quite hard to be heard.

The Association of London Markets, which we are trying to reinvigorate, would be that umbrella and hopefully the work we are doing now will be continued within a formalised association.

GN: Markets have slipped off the radar of public policy, yet they play a vital part in London’s food supply chain. Combined, the throughput of London’s wholesale markets and the customer base of its retail markets is huge. This event is a start in raising the profile of markets, not just in London but in the UK and even wider.

SC: We also got involved to show some of the other local markets the structure and the model that has brought us to where we are. We have markets from all over the world visiting Borough every year to see our model and we encourage that because we believe sharing best practice is essential if markets are to thrive. Markets are vital and the more we can do jointly to make them prosper, the better.

One of the things with the management of markets in London is that they are rarely ring-fenced, and therefore do not get the support they need, financial or otherwise. We are absolutely ring-fenced, we have autonomy and therefore can look at our development in a very uncomplicated manner. The results show that working in isolation, you can build something that really works.

A lot of the London councils are yet to understand how a market can fit into their regeneration programmes, but markets offer not only a vital food service, but also are a very effective use of land.

How do you compare Borough with your fellow LMM collaborators?

SC: We are different to the other markets, but we have been able to demonstrate that it is possible to develop and grow a successful composite market with creative strategies. We have had the independence to do it - as a charitable trust, our sole function is to run the market.

There was clearly a decision at Borough towards the end of the 1990s to develop a specialist retail market, and we did that on the back of our fresh produce wholesale market. On the back of a successful retail market, we have now built a very successful specialist food wholesale business in the market too.

GN: Borough Market is unique in being probably the oldest market in London and yet being one of the newest retail markets in the UK. Because of our experience, and the need to re-invent ourselves, we have become a different sort of market - a “composite market” - combining traditional wholesale, a food retail market, with both casual and permanent stands, food shops and restaurants and cafes, as well asa new wholesale element, feeding off the back of the new retail market. We have now developed a more robust model, where each element supports another, at the same time making the market overall less reliant on any one element.

SC: When I started three years ago, we had six or seven fruit and vegetable wholesalers here, who were mainly targeting traditional shops and delicatessens. Now there are just under 50 specialist food wholesalers, all targeting restaurants, hotels and catering customers.

That is a very rapid change for the market - what drove it?

SC: Well-known chefs and restaurateurs began to come to Borough and talk about it and that helped to develop a reputation as a food hub that has given us a wide cross-section of customers. There are traders here who have wholesale and retail operations, as well as a shop or restaurant, and we have proved that you can have a mixed market where the different elements reinforce each other.

It has not necessarily developed how people first expected it to - I think if you had sat here in the late 1990s, it would have been very difficult to verbalise what Borough market has now become. But what we have now has sprung from the initial concept.

There are spin-offs from Borough too. Many of the people who have built businesses here have farms, and their success has created employment in the regional food industry. We have a big community here, and it has a big reach.

A big reach, but Borough, as with other markets, is often misunderstood or misrepresented. Do you agree?

GN: Part of the problem is that people who write policy or sit on committees are either not connected with the real food world, or act as doorkeepers, preventing a wider understanding developing between those who do - like markets - and those in political power.

SC: When they first put together the London Food Strategy, we were not consulted at all. Maybe they didn’t notice we were here, although we did write to them during the process. One of our problems is that it is very difficult to categorise us. We are not as big as some of the other wholesale markets and we are not a street market. We are a covered, uncovered market and we have a bit of everything, so maybe that’s why we slipped the net. Through David Smith at the Corporation of London, we do now have representation for wholesale markets on the committee, though, and two people have just been employed to help us use new funding to develop our site.

Can LMM re-position the markets in the mindsets of London’s decision-makers?

SC: The symposium next week (October 23 at City Hall) will be the first of its kind, and I think the most important thing is that we establish a way for us all to communicate and then move forward. The important thing is that what we are saying gets through to the right level of decision-makers, and that they in turn look at all the markets and see the potential markets have. At least we will raise awareness and understanding of how markets can work for London.