Using a temporary street market to improve the local economy and encourage more walking in the neighbourhood
Uplands Market
Swansea, South Wales
£5k-£10k (initial set-up)
Urban Foundry, Swansea Bay Street Markets
2013 – to date
Neighbourhood centre (pop. 14,099)
Community / Economy
Mixed
Cultural, community and local business engagement / Tactical urbanism
Creative regeneration agency Urban Foundry saw the potential for a French-style street market to help create a sense of place in its home suburb of Uplands, Swansea. It is a largely ‘walkable’ neighbourhood and densely populated with a broad spectrum of residents from students and those on low incomes to more affluent households. The local high street had good footfall and used to have a range of independent shops, but these had dwindled over time in favour of more cost-conscious national retailers.
Gwydr Square, a car-dominated side road just off the main street, was seen as an ideal location for a market. Urban Foundry believed it could easily be made traffic-free, becoming a space for people, by temporarily removing a handful of parking spaces for a few hours each month.
After trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade other local stakeholders to trial a market, Urban Foundry decided to set it up themselves – to test the benefits of fast, light and cheap ‘pop-up urbanism’. If successful, the plan was to hand over the running of the market to local volunteers.
Supportive local politicians helped to dispel initial resistance to road closures and parking disruption from some council officers and local businesses. Flyers were delivered to every house in affected streets to warn them of the potential for short-lived disruption. The temporary nature of the market was helpful for advocating an approach of “it’s just one morning, once a month, so let’s just try it”.
The first Uplands Market was held in July 2013. Apart from the pandemic, the market has been held on every last Saturday of the month ever since (or in December, on the last weekend before Christmas), providing retail space for small, independent artisan producers of high-quality, locally made food, drink and craft items.
Making fresh produce available to the local community, lowering food miles and supporting producers from the Swansea Bay area are key aims of the market. Some traders sell larger and more expensive items, such as garden furniture. Customers can spend anywhere from a few pounds to well over £100.
The market intentionally doesn’t have a refreshment stand and some adjacent local businesses offer special market day deals, both of which help to support the commercial vitality of local cafes and shops by bringing increased trade on market day. According to one local restaurant owner: "The Uplands Market has been a massive boost to trade and to the Uplands in general. Market days are lively and vibrant, there is always a really good atmosphere and the huge increase in footfall is good for everyone.”
Alongside local produce, the market provides a regular neighbourhood meet-up point. Community groups, local councillors and charities take stalls to promote local initiatives or consult with local people and it is also common to see people handing out flyers, collecting signatures for petitions or holding informal protests. For example, the local Living Streets group has spent time at the market asking people for their views on the walking-related issues they are campaigning on, and have found it an incredibly useful sounding board, with people keen to engage with them. The market also provides space for local musicians to busk, and for open-mic performances by the local Poets’ Collective – building on the area’s cultural heritage as the birthplace of Dylan Thomas.
The first market attracted 30 stallholders and was so successful that there was a waiting list of 200 traders for future markets. It was immediately clear that running the market would be too large a job for volunteers, so a community interest company (CIC) was set up (now Swansea Bay Street Markets) with an employee managing the market’s operations and marketing and the local volunteers acting as stewards on market days. At its peak, the market averaged 65 stalls but has settled at about 45, in part due to many producers ceasing to trade during the pandemic.
Despite a handful of objections from local businesses to the annual application for the road closure licence, local residents are overwhelmingly positive and supportive of the market.
Footfall at Uplands Market is weather dependent but there can be over 3,000 people on warm sunny days – far more than in the area on a usual Saturday morning. It has been ranked as one of the top ten street markets in the UK by The Daily Telegraph and has twice been runner-up in The Observer Food Monthly awards. Even in the wet winter months, traders still find it profitable to keep attending.
The market also operates as an incubator space for local traders – as a cost-effective place to trial new products and services. At least four have outgrown the market and set up their own shops or become suppliers to local businesses.
The CIC doesn’t have the resources to conduct regular formal evaluations of the market’s success, but they regularly get good feedback from traders and customers. With the market financially self-sufficient, and traders and customers continuing to come each month, its success is self-evident.
In 2018, local university students conducted surveys with about 300 visitors at Uplands Market and its sister market in the marina. 67% of people had specifically been attracted by the markets. A fifth of people also spent money in surrounding local businesses, typically spending in the region of £10 to £25. Additionally, 77% thought the market had given them a more positive view of the Uplands area. Anecdotally, many people originally attracted by the market now also shop in Uplands on non-market days.
Uplands has experienced some gentrification in the last decade and the market, along with the refurbishment of a local pub and the opening of a high-end café bar, has undoubtedly contributed to this change. The CIC also believe that the market has helped to shift perceptions towards Uplands as a walkable place – with more people now walking around the area on non-market days.
To underpin commercial viability, the CIC set up a second monthly market at Swansea Marina, then took over the ailing ‘Mumbles Market’. Swansea Bay Street Markets has created one full-time-equivalent role, works with teams of local volunteers, and offers internships to university students.
See all the learnings from setting up and running the Swansea Bay markets which are captured in the Welsh Government’s Street Market: In-depth Guide.