£400m Spitalfields project opens

One lobby group says 130 stallholders will lose their pitches

A £400m controversial new development in Spitalfields, home of a popular Sunday market, has been unveiled.

The project will bring shops, offices and cafes to the area by the market, a regular fixture for shoppers of the home-grown, handmade and eclectic.

Developers say the new look will draw more people to Old Spitalfields market.

But opponents Spitalfields Market Under Threat (SMUT) said stallholders were being squeezed out leaving a "sanitised market dominated by large units".

Bishops Square, the climax of a 17-year project, was officially opened on Thursday by the Lord Mayor of the City of London followed by a programme of street arts and music at the east London site.

Silk weavers

As well as 575,000 sq ft of office space, there will be a four-acre public space where street artists can perform and art will be installed, similar to Covent Garden.

But SMUT said the plans encroach on market space leading to the number of stalls on Sundays being cut from 340 to 170, meaning 130 stallholders will lose their pitches.

A spokesman for the Spitalfields Development Group said: "There is less space available but Old Spitalfields market still forms a vital part of the development."

He added there were plans to create the capacity for 350 stalls in the future which would be at least equal to the most it had ever had.

The site was once home to the Huguenot silk weavers of the 17th century, followed by the Jewish community fleeing Pogroms in Russia in the 19th century and, more recently, the Bangladeshi community.