London street markets: Reportage drawing and informal conversations in subjectively understanding an overlooked culture

This article is primarily a visual article, rather than a conventional academic article. Drawing on my own on-site sketchbooks, notes and drawings as the research method, it examines and reflects on London street markets through their historical visual legacy and contemporary relevance. The intention is to gain knowledge and understanding of my local market – East Street Market, Walworth, in the Borough of Southwark, South East London, where I have lived for over twenty years. I will briefly evaluate the historical visual material and representations of London street markets by illustrators such as Pearl Binder (1904–90) and photographer László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) with selective contemporary examples. My own visual practice will be evaluated in detail and analysed in relation to the visual legacy and precedents. The objective is to provide a rationale for the use of visual methods as a research tool – one capable of generating empathetic understanding of East Street Market, and the daily routines and labour of its stallholders. London street markets are more than the materials they are constructed from. They embody lived experience, community identity and individual entrepreneurial culture-qualities increasingly co-opted in the drive for regeneration and gentrification in the neo-liberal city. East Street has two large regeneration projects: one to its immediate north at the Elephant and Castle and the other to its south with the demolition of the Aylesbury Estate. Against this backdrop, the article reflects on the ethics of my visual method of sketching and informal interviews as a research tool in urban space. The aim is to record the traditions, resilience and viability of the market. Dismantling stereotypical preconceptions and providing a counter-narrative to the powerful corporate and developer vision shaping local city spaces.