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 Comedian Stanley Baxter opens the third Art Exhibition at the Passage in 1961 |
This antiques market could be lost treasure
As campaigners fight to save the world famous Camden Passage market, Peter Gruner uncovers the story of the traders’ leader who gave it life
FUTURE generations won’t thank today’s Londoners who allow vital history to be sacrificed to market forces.
Whether it’s a threat to Camden Passage antique market in Islington or the loss of the great view of St Paul’s Cathedral from Hampstead Heath – in the words of the Joni Mitchell song, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
A soon-to-be-reissued book, From Camden Passage With Love by John Payton, is a timely reminder of how we are bequeathed our historical landmarks and how close we get to losing them.
In the late 1950s Payton, who owned a small music business, set about transforming the passage from a run-down, semi-derelict area into one of the world’s most famous antique markets.
The book, originally published in 1992, chronicles in detail how the then Islington Council did all it could to thwart the market idea virtually from day one.
It traces the early beginnings of the Passage as Payton sets up a traders’ association in 1959 with every shop donating two shillings and sixpence to pay for much-needed painting, decorating and refurbishing. Next he formed a company with enough £1 shares to cover the cost of hundreds of stalls and canopies.
Adverts soon brought in stallholders and by early 1960 a bustling market had been established on Saturdays.
“It would have been reasonable to expect Islington borough council to be delighted with what we were doing,” Payton writes.
“Far from it. I found that we seemed to be not at all popular in the Town Hall.
“I wrote many letters and had interviews with the town clerk and the borough engineer, both of whom were singularly unhelpful.”
Payton wanted small signs on lamp-posts near Angel Tube station pointing the way to the market for visitors. “Can’t be done,” said the borough engineer.
Why not, he asked. “We do not have to give a reason,” came the reply.
Payton describes one difficult town clerk as opulent and overweight with a loud and terribly affected Oxford accent.
“Behind a pretence of being most interested and helpful,” Payton writes, “he blocked everything I asked for.”
Despite numerous upsets, a date was set for an official Camden Passage open day on Saturday, September 3 1960.
Television actor Michael Medwin opened the proceedings, helped by Mayor of Islington Agnes Seeley. But, even on the day, someone complained about using the pavement for an art show.
The council stepped in again, complaining that the threaded coloured lights did not have planning permission and Payton was told to take them down – an order which he duly ignored.
The passage prospered and inspired a sudden new interest in seeking and collecting antiques. Visitors came from all over the world, but by 1968 Payton decided he’d had enough and emigrated to Australia with his wife and two of his children.
Although in his 80s, he still returns to Islington every two or three years to meet up with his daughter Karen Murdoch, who now runs a sizeable part of the market, and old friends and traders.
With no official protection, however, and with the antique trade recently in the doldrums, Camden Passage is under constant threat from developers who would turn it into another average town centre.
More than 180 antiques dealers have been driven out in the past eight years. Two years ago more than 40 traders were evicted from the Georgian Village opposite Islington Green after it was turned into a clothing department store. Islington Council leader, Lib Dem Cllr James Kempton, has promised to stop the tide of change – but his powers may be limited.
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