Fears are rising that Chelsea Farmers’ Market will be lost after a planning application was submitted by Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust for a development on its site.
Plans to build a five-storey building on the market in Sydney Street, which would be home to 59 residential units as well as shops and businesses, have been lodged with Kensington and Chelsea Council .
Now a petition has been set up calling for the market, described as one of the last of its kind in the borough, to be saved.
The NHS trust says the property is needed to help fund a new state-of-the-art hospital wing .
Caolan Robertson is leading the Save the Chelsea Farmers’ Market campaign.
He lives on King’s Road and is a regular shopper there. He said: “The Chelsea Farmers' Market is one of the last outdoor, independent markets in the entire borough, reflecting the great history of the Kings Road and surrounding areas.
"It’s a quiet oasis for locals and travellers to escape from the busy King's Road and to experience tranquillity as they dine and shop.”
The proposed development has been labelled as “dull modern high rise buildings”.
Its loss would be “another nail in the coffin for independent traders and community spaces in London” he said.
"If we come together as locals, visitors and Londoners to fight against this tirade of over-development, we can keep our neighbourhood a thriving, beautiful place," he added.
And Mr Robertson believes a compromise can be reached with the NHS Trust, telling getwestlondon : “We want to have the proposals looked at again and have them revised so that the farmer’s market could still exist in its current format.”
He has helped set up a website, explaining the groups aims and urging people who wish to object to the proposals to do so to K&C Council before the August 12 deadline.
A spokesperson for Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust said: “A new state-of-the-art hospital wing, located on our existing Sydney Street site, will benefit thousands of patients who require specialist respiratory care for a range of chronic lung conditions.
“It will address the pressing clinical need to update current inpatient facilities, which are cramped and outdated, and present many challenges to those delivering care to seriously ill patients.
“The trust can only fund these much-needed new medical facilities through the sale of assets that are not currently used for patient care, including the Chelsea Farmers Market.”
The farmers market in Chelsea is open daily from 9am.
More information on the fight to save the market can be found here .
