The Greenwich Wire reports ….Lewisham’s Model Market is on track to reopen later this year, its new operator has said, even though the site is still sitting empty months after it was first supposed to have opened its gates.
The food and drink spot, which closed in 2021, is due to be revived as part of plans to redevelop Lewisham Shopping Centre.
But the gates remain padlocked – and peering through the gap reveals a pile of rubble in the centre of the site.
Landsec, the company that owns the centre, said in December last year that “a reimagined street market for a new generation” would reopen this spring. In June, that was revised to “late summer”. Signs outside the shopping centre now say “later this year”.
German Kraft, the brewery behind Mercato Metropolitano near Elephant & Castle, will be in charge of the site when it does open. Felix Bollen, one of the company’s founders, said the plan was still to open this year.
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Lewisham’s Model Market, famous for its beer and street food, will reopen in later this summer under plans announced by Landsec which is redeveloping the shopping centre.
The market will be run by German Kraft, an independent brewery based in London which brews beers in the German tradition.
Kraft has been running a street food market close to the Elephant & Castle, bars in Mayfair and East London, and outlets in Vienna and Berlin.
Landsec says the revived Model Market will offer an all-day programme, from morning coffee and coworking to micro-dining, creative retail, and evening programming.
Alongside curated street food, the market will host live DJ sets, pop-ups, and events that celebrate food, art, and community.
The project aims to support job creation and attract small-scale traders, while reinforcing Lewisham Shopping Centre’s role as a community hub.
The market, just south of the main shopping centre, was a site for small traders until the early 2000s. It opened as a street food market in 2014, run by Street Feast. The market closed in 2021 when Street Feast collapsed.
Lewisham council approved Landsec’s plans for an ambitious redevelopment of the shopping centre in October last year. The redevelopment will include around 1,700 new homes and a large park built on the roof of the new centre.
The plan will transform the 17-acre site into a residential neighbourhood with a mix of affordable housing, student accommodation, and co-living residences, alongside a new shopping centre with bars, cafes and restaurants as well as shops, a music venue, and a revived Model Market.