Halogen client VINCI St. Modwen celebrated the opening of the Food Exchange in New Covent Garden Market with an exhibition and panel discussion for the 2018 London Festival of Architecture. Halogen organised, promoted and ran the event to mark an exciting milestone in VINCI St. Modwen’s redevelopment of the market in Nine Elms.

 

With the over-arching theme of identity, an exhibition of market photographer Clive Boursnell’s images chronicled the market’s history and identity over fifty years, from its origins in Covent Garden to its newest home in Nine Elms. To bring this vision to life, businesses operating from the Food Exchange and market traders offered their produce for guests to taste and sample.

 

The panel, chaired by London Festival of Architecture’s Deputy Director Owen Wainhouse, discussed markets as catalysts for regeneration across London. Panelists Pam Alexander of CGMA, Eric Reynolds of Urban Space Management, Wayne Hemingway from Hemingway Design, Joe Watson of the National Trust and photographer Clive Bournsell, approached the subject from their own expert perspective. Joe Watson described markets as “fusebox places”, where the garden and the city can meet and connect.

 

The clear consensus, agreed by all panellists, is that people make places, and London’s markets are at the heart of this fostering trade, community and transformation in the city.