‘London’s best-kept secret’: Inside the $1.1 billion midnight market that fuels Harrods, Claridge’s and the capital’s Michelin-starred restaurants
By the time most Londoners had rolled out of bed on Monday morning, Garry Marshall had already finished his day at New Covent Garden Market.
Located on the south bank of the River Thames, surrounded by high-rise buildings sparkling in the early winter dawn, the wholesale market is the UK’s largest fruit, vegetable and flower market.
“It’s the best kept secret in London,” Joe Brier, the market’s general manager, told AFP on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
London’s historic fruit and vegetable market in Covent Garden moved from central London to the south-western suburb of Battersea on 11 November 1974, in an effort to expand and modernize.
Marshall has worked in the market for more than 45 of those years, alongside nearly 200 companies supplying grocery stores, restaurants, hotels and local offices in London.
He is the third generation of his family to be associated with the market, and his son George will take over his business, Bevington Salads, after him.
“New Covent Garden is part of us. It will be part of my son’s life, and maybe part of my grandson’s life.”
“Honestly, once you’re in it, you’re in it for life,” said Marshall, who is also president of the New Covent Garden Tenants’ Association.
Chris Ratcliffe – Bloomberg/Getty Images
“Like magic”
The ‘working day’ begins around 10:00pm (2200 GMT) for about 2,000 people working in New Covent Garden, with produce arriving from all over Europe and the world.
“Once you get here at 10am, have a cup of tea, and take a look at your products arriving.
“And then it happens. Then the buzzer is on. ‘The market is alive,'” Marshall said, his eyes lighting up with pride.
Traders sell their products the “old school” way – face to face – during the early hours of the morning, and then, as the sun rises, they are shipped across the capital and south-east England.
“So, by the time people get out of bed and walk into their hotel or into their office or a school or a government building, it’s there…it’s like magic,” Marshall said.
“If you’re here at one, two or three o’clock in the morning, it’s like a small town with hundreds and hundreds of people,” said Wanda Goldwag, chair of the Covent Garden Market Authority, which runs New Covent Garden Market.
The sprawling complex has its own cafés and a post office that operates from 3:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
According to Marshall, night-time opening hours, in place a decade ago to eliminate daytime commercial traffic in the congested British capital, have made it difficult to attract younger generations.
But the market and its vendors have weathered many storms in the past half-century.
When demand declined at the end of the 20th century with the growth of supermarkets, New Covent Garden turned its attention to the hospitality industry instead.
Chris Ratcliffe – Bloomberg/Getty Images
Relevance
The market still supplies Michelin-starred restaurants, celebrity chefs and upscale London landmarks such as retailer Harrods and the Claridge’s Hotel.
One loyal customer is French chef Pierre Kaufmann, who used to frequent the market when he ran La Tante Claire, his three-Michelin-starred London restaurant.
“It was a pleasure to come here to meet different people and talk about vegetables,” Kaufman told AFP.
Now, he comes mainly to buy flowers, from bouquets of pink and purple hydrangeas to boxes of roses and tulips that the CGMA says supply 75 percent of London florists.
For Goldwag, staying relevant is one of the main challenges.
“So, a lot of us buy our food from supermarkets now. Naturally, in tough economic times, everyone is very money-conscious.
“Wholesale markets must ensure they remain relevant and sustainable.”
Other major London wholesale markets, such as Smithfield Meat Market and Billingsgate Fish Market, face uncertain futures after plans to move them were put on hold.
“They may not find anywhere to work very soon,” lamented Marshall, adding that the New Covent Garden project would “boost” other markets.
However, business is booming at New Covent Garden, with sales reaching £880 million ($1.1 billion) last year, with renovation plans set to be completed before the end of the decade and a lease secured for at least 25 years.
“I don’t know if I’ll be here for 25 years,” Marshall said. “But my son definitely will be.”
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