Page 5 - Market Times April 2024

FEATURE • STRUTTON GROUND 5
Located just a stone’s throw from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, London’s Strutton Ground Market has embraced the street food movement and is now a hub of stalls serving the finest hot food from all over the world. Nicola Gould reports
Strutton Ground, a narrow, cobbled street in London linking Victoria Street to Horseferry Road, has hosted a market since the 1860s, and has evolved over the years to reflect a chang- ing world.
Once a chaotic maelstrom of barrow boys hawking everything from fruit and veg to household goods serving a poor area that was home to labourers and artisans, the market and its environs have changed dramatically over the years.
By the 1950s, when The Goons, the fa- mous comedy quartet whose radio show gained a cult following, became fre- quenters of The Grafton Arms, the market they could see from the upstairs room where they met was a much more orderly affair.
As time went by office blocks and government buildings were everywhere on the horizon. The location close to Victoria Station, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster meant Strutton Ground was now prime real estate. Yet the market, run by Westminster City Council, retained its traditional feel.
It was typical of many a London street market of its time, with an eclectic mix of general stalls, from staples like fruit and veg, plants and flowers to clothing stalls and shoes.
By the time Dipen Patel, known affec- tionately by everyone as Chef D, decided to give the market a try for a day in 2013, there were just a couple of hot food busi- nesses there.
“I remember there was a good fruit and veg stall, some general goods, gadgets, and some clothing,” he said.
Chef D had begun his business, Just A Bite, in 2010 as a small catering concern in Croydon, using the authentic family recipes he had known from childhood.
“It was before street food really took off, but I could see the potential and we decided to venture out and see how we got on in London,” he said.
Starting in Lower Marsh Street, in Lam- beth, it took a year or two to establish a thriving, authentic Indian street food busi- ness. When another trader recommended
Strutton Ground, Dipen set up stall for one day alongside a couple of other hot food traders.
Within a relatively short time, his delicious Indian recipes had earned a loyal following, and by 2014 the lunchtime queues were so long Chef D grabbed the opportunity to take over the next-door pitch when the card man decided to call it a day.
“Now we are here five days a week. The market took a hit with Covid but we still
have plenty of loyal customers and now we are building back up,” Dipen said. Around the same time as Just A Bite
arrived, Mexican-born Rury Fischelt was also a new kid on the block at Strutton Ground with his authentic Mexican street food business Santana Grill.
A cabinet maker by profession, Rury started his business by accident when he volunteered to cook and sell Mexican food at a charity event in aid of his children’s school.
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