Borough market in danger from rail expansion

Borough market is apparently in danger of closing, as the much-mooted rail expansion plans eventually start. A new railway bridge will mean that a considerable chunk of market space will be lost forever.

The fear is that what will be left is a Borough Market-Lite: with all the good and interesting stalls which made it such a great stop off point, priced out of the place, to be replaced by organic lifestyle-branded companies.

I think that would be a great shame, although it's already happening to a certain extent - the first time that I went there, it was already set up as a "foodie" mecca, which had lots of little interesting stalls, replete with goodies that tempted the taste buds. The temptation is still there, but the little stalls seem to have been squeezed out to a certain degree. I think the main difference is that I caught it just as it had turned into this foodie mecca, so the stalls there were doing it as the end result of their labour: now a lot of the time it seems that their stall is the beginning of the process: trying to get a brand going, get noticed at Borough market, sell the concept to an investment company, get the brand into a supermarket.

It has also noticeably turned into a (posher) fast food court: near enough every stall is churning out a variation on meat and bread (or veggie burger and bread) or something similar. The original reason for going now seems almost incidental to buying a burger or sausage. Yes, the meat may be of a higher quality, but essentially it feels like a place to get a quick (but expensive) bite to eat, and possibly also buy some raw ingredients while you are there.

I will still go, and it will be interesting to see what happens, but the food on sale there can increasingly be sourced from elsewhere, and it is still very expensive: the food will always be for a rare treat, or a special supper, rather than somewhere I buy all my food from.