Street Feast Lewisham: #ModelMarket

Street Feast is the company that runs Brockley Market-esque nighttime events at Dalston Yard and its just announced its first expansion will be to... Lewisham. They say:

#ModelMarket is an abandoned 1950s indoor and outdoor market just off Lewisham High Street and we’ll be breathing new life, light and vibes into the space with everything you’d expect - fantastic street food, cracking drinks, great music and our usual wonderful crowd.

We’ve not done anything like #ModelMarket before – where the best bits of #DalstonYard meet the vibe of #HawkerHouse – and we’re really looking forward to bringing our thing to Lewisham. We’re running for 15 weekends from mid-June on Fridays and Saturdays from 6pm alongside #DalstonYard (which re-opens just a few weekends before on 16/17 May).

At #ModelMarket, you will find Breddos, Rola Wala, SmokeStak, Yum Bun and many more of your favourite and soon-to-be favourite street food traders in their own, undercover micro-diners. Eat-in or eat-out in the open air yard. There’ll also be a wood panelled shack lined with rum, shandies poured from a former hair salon, slow smoked barbecue in an old record shop and a (not-so) secret rooftop suntrap. The original calypso paintjob stays.

#ModelMarket is fitted with a great sound system for our DJs. There are also five brilliant bars - Rotary Cocktail Bar, Shandy Salon, Rum Shack, Wine Bar and Slushy Bar.

The Model Market, on Lewisham High Street, was closed a few years ago and had been targeted for demolition by its owners, but the Council refused permission. This is a fantastic bit of opportunism - a victory of imagination over the high street's dowdy reputation.

It also signals a major change. Until now, most of the new businesses in the area have been opened by South East London natives. Following on the heels of Sodo's Honor Oak venture, it seems that this borough is now on the radar of East London entrepreneurs. The demographics are similar, the connections are decent, thanks to the East London Line and the DLR and there are plenty of empty or underused premises crying out for something to fill them.

As we've said many times before, the supply of good quality eating and drinking destinations in this part of London has not kept pace with demand. There is a growing population of young people with money to spend doing stuff and who want to be able to do it locally. Every good business in Brockley, from The Orchard and The Gantry to Brockley Market and Meze Mangal, has thrived, while New Cross and Deptford are building critical mass.

It was only a matter of time before the rest of London woke up to the opportunity.