New public flower market in London
September 6th sees the official opening of the first new public flower market in 150 years and one of our fabbo Good Florist Guide members is going to be part of it.
Launched by Ollie Saunders, who heads up the founding team, the Chiswick based flower market is designed to rival Columbia Road with a massive range of plants and horticultural accessories and of course flowers.
Indeed one of the first local businesses to sign up is Dominic Hughes (pictured above with Louise Smith) who runs the fabulous Pot Pourri in Chiswick High Road and has been a member of Good Florist Guide for many years; indeed has been responsible for many of the bouquets received by our Editor.
Ollie, (pictured below with the team) a commercial surveyor, is one of three directors of the new market, along with author Karen Liebreich and journalist Bridget Osborne. Ollie loves flowers and would regularly make the trek to Columbia Rd before the coronavirus outbreak. Karen has a diploma in horticulture and has set up many community projects involving plants as a director of the not for profit organisation Abundance London. Bridget worked for the BBC for many years and is the editor of local website The Chiswick Calendar. All three are passionate about making the place where they live as good as it can be.
“Markets are brilliant places for people to meet friends and shop in a leisurely way which isn’t really possible in enclosed spaces anymore. We’re fortunate that the Old Market Place is spacious, with plenty of room for social distancing and set back from the road, but slap bang in the middle of Chiswick” said Bridget. The team now hope it will become a focal point which will attract people to Chiswick High Rd and revitalise the local economy.
The planned launch date is Sunday 6th September, 09.30 am – 3.00 pm with subsequent markets on the first Sunday of every month: 4th October, 1st November and 6th December in the Old Market Place outside the police station, opposite Waterstones in Chiswick High Rd. W4 2DW. The market will be held in the spot where Chiswick’s first open air market was set up in 1919 by soldiers returning from the First World War, also looking to create employment during an economic crisis.
The team behind the Market: Dawn Wilson (web designer in orange top). Ekaterina Harwood (black top in foreground, interior designer), Ollie Saunders (very back, commercial surveyor with JLL and one of the flower market directors), Bridget Osborne (in front of him, Editor of The Chiswick Calendar and co-director of the flower market), Amanda Parker (in front of me, brown hair and sunglasses, events manager), Karen Liebreich (foreground, turquoise jacket and sunglasses, co-director of the flower market and director of Abundance London), Jeremy Day (back row, commercial surveyor with Whitman & Co), Jim Richards (senior associate, Mackrell solicitors), Michael Robinson (green shirt, pink orchid, engineer), Steve Nutt (behind, surveyor). Kathleen Mitra (finance director).
