Superstore threat to spice market

One of London's best known ethnic food markets is under threat from developers.

Queens Market in Newham - which has been on the site for 100 years - is set to be bulldozed to make way for a £50million shopping and housing complex.

Planners are hoping to move the market to a location nearby to allow the superstore development to be built. But campaigners say it will lose its charm and character and the stallholders could see their businesses losing money against the competition of the supermarket, which is likely to be an Asda branch.

They say the market provides cheap food to the residents of one of London's most diverse boroughs - one of only two in which whites are in the minority. The market, which has existed in different guises for more than 100 years, sells products including sugar cane, green coconuts, papaya, mango and goat meat and attracts regular customers from as far afield as Dorset.

Poet Benjamin Zephaniah, one of the campaigners fighting to save the site, said: "If the market were to be taken away from us, not only would stallholders lose out, the heart of the street would be taken away. For some it's a space where they can earn a living, for some it's a place to get good food at good prices and for others it's an important place of interaction. Saving the market is not just about money, it's also about culture, and our culture is priceless."

Newham council proposes to sell the market to developer St Modwen, allowing the supermarket and 130 homes to be built by 2007. A Mori poll found 51 per cent of residents in favour and 26 per cent against the plans. But 75 per cent said they were happy with the area.

Under the plans, the market will be moved to another, unspecified, site as part of the development but campaigners fear it will lose its ethnicity under the new scheme.

Alan Craig, the borough's sole opposition councillor, said: "This is commercial thuggery of the worst type. East London's immigrant communities, who are often on low incomes, can buy their own foods from around the world at Queens Market. There is nowhere else to go, certainly not Asda."

Claire Peasnall of Friends of Queens Market said neighbouring Canning Town and Stratford markets had both disappeared after being "regenerated". She said Queens Market was a "roaring commercial success" that simply needed modernising. "Markets are complex mechanisms and at the moment Queens Market is in a prime position."

She said: "Markets just don't like being chopped in half and shoved indoors."

But Newham council insisted its plans for the market will revitalise a "dark and dingy" area and boost trade. It said shops near the market had been raided by food safety inspectors, who found unhygienic practices and out-of-date meat.

Chris Wood, Newham's deputy chief executive, said he shared concerns about the market becoming "sterile" and vowed to retain its character.

"When it's a nice day and the market is open and busy, it has a bit of character about it. We need to maintain that," he said.