Your say / St Nick's Market
‘We are concerned about the council’s view of St Nick’s Market as a cash cow to be milked’
The proposed fee model for traders at St Nicholas Market will have a disastrous effect on the viability of the market as a whole.
These levels of fee increases, without the opportunity to open seven days a week, could force many retail traders out of business. This would have a knock-on effect on those businesses that initially survived.
St Nicholas Market needs to maintain a critical mass to be successful. More ways should be found to utilise the many unused spaces in and around the market buildings, rather than attempting to generate extra revenue from existing retail traders.
is needed now More than ever
We disagree with Economic Development Service’s repeated assertion that St Nicholas Market is not presently covering its costs.
The figures quoted in its own August 2024 report states that markets expenditure was £591,000 and income was £646,000, which is actually a surplus of £55,000.
It then set an arbitrary income target of £746,000 which it initially presented to the council committee as evidence of a markets income shortfall of £115,000, and then increased that target by an extra £150,000 in phase 2 of the consultation.
I and many other traders spent a lot of time examining and replying to the phase 1 consultation, drafting thoughtful and measured suggestions as to how the market could generate the extra income that was being demanded of it without driving key businesses away and destroying the market, the employment it creates, and the revenue and employment it generates for the council.
When the Economic Development Service’s preferred turnover models were overwhelmingly rejected by the traders, it moved the goal posts and raised its ‘income shortfall’ and subsequent fee increase to £265,000.
The council’s 2024 report acknowledges in that “it is highly unlikely that Covered Market and Exchange Hall traders could withstand a 21.15% increase. In the event that traders are unable to maintain business, traders would end their contracts and the stall would become empty. Stall revenue is lost until relet however at the increased licence fee reletting may be more difficult. Consequently, licence fees received could be lower than at the outset.”
Having raised the income targets between the phase 1 consultation and phase 2 consultation, the council is now proposing a 30 per cent increase for the Covered Market and 40 per cent increase for the Exchange Hall and South Arcade, on top of the five per cent increase we’ve already had imposed this year as an initial step.
We calculate those proposed total increases to be 36.5 per cent and 47 per cent respectively, way in excess of the levels which the council’s own report deems to be unaffordable and counterproductive towards the raising of revenue.
We strongly disagree with the loading of these fee increases entirely on the existing traders when there are substantial revenue opportunities available in the many unused parts of the market buildings.
St Nick’s Market has an amazing collection of independent traders – photo: St Nick’s Night Market
Independent businesses provide a high level of employment per pound spent, and practically all their profits are reinvested in the local economy.
Big business profits invariably disappear out of the local economy, and frequently offshore.
St Nicholas Market is full of independent businesses. However, we are concerned about a perceived council view of the market as a cash cow to be milked.
If this course is pursued and traders’ valid concerns are overridden, the predominant character of the market as a collection of independent owner-operator businesses may begin to disappear and be replaced by an increasing number of bland corporate businesses.
In their preamble to the phase 2 consultation, Bristol City Council states that it wants to invest in the market for both traders and visitors but there are no examples anywhere in the consultation of how and where this investment will take place.
The unmitigated fee increases it is proposing will simply be unaffordable to the retail Exchange Hall and Covered Market traders unless we have firm commitments on this council reinvestment.
One of the most obvious and productive areas for this would be to bring back the Autumn Night Markets we used to have in October and November, which were brilliant at driving new footfall and showcasing our offer during the golden quarter, an absolutely crucial period to the viability of retail business.
Retailers in St Nicholas Market have suffered in recent years from the removal of any promotion of St Nick’s at this time of year, just when all the noise in some of our local press and across social media is being made by temporary Christmas markets elsewhere.
Night markets ought in any case to be capable of generating extra revenue for the council through the higher fees charged to street food traders, rather than being designed to be revenue neutral.
Another option would be to open the market seven days a week all year round for those traders who wish to trade.
Traders and the public alike have been crying out for seven day opening for years, yet market management have repeatedly rejected this as an option.
The overwhelming trader support for this is confirmed in the 62 per cent and 61 per cent favourable trader responses in the phase 1 feedback to the question on seven day a week opening and Bank Holiday opening.
The minority of respondents who oppose seven day a week opening and Bank Holiday opening are almost certainly the same traders who already choose not to open on the existing Sunday trading days at Christmas, and the market already functions successfully enough without them on those existing Sundays.
There would be absolutely no need to compel these traders to open if they chose not to, but it would give the rest of the market the opportunity to partially mitigate the fee increases the council is proposing.
We believe footfall and trade on the other six days of the week would also be increased as a result of our being open full time.
St Nick’s Night Market has not been hosted for several years – photo: St Nick’s Night Market
While market management has been bogged down in the bureaucracy of compiling this financial report, the day to day promotion of the market appears in recent years to have been neglected and the income generated by traders taken for granted.
There have been no night markets, no Christmas lights switch-on and no promotion to speak of.
There has also been a general lack of willingness to get involved in BID-sponsored events such as the Light Festival, which should be placing St Nicholas Market, located in the heart of Bristol’s Old City, front and central as the key strategic tourist destination in a walkable city centre.
Trader-led suggestions for partnerships with external agencies with substantial funding available to spend on tourism initiatives have been turned down flat.
It ought to be a matter of council policy to promote the market through all the channels where it has influence.
With these proposed fee increases, and without the option of seven day opening to mitigate them, Exchange Hall and Covered Market traders will need to make staff reductions and possibly reduce the quality of their offer just to survive.
The market works as a whole – its critical mass is crucial to the success of all its constituent parts.
The outside street markets provide a level of visibility to visitors who might otherwise walk straight past the area unaware of the existence of the market.
The Glass Arcade currently benefits from a lot of footfall which, were it to exist on its own, would be very transient.
The specialist niche shops in the Covered Market draw customers from far afield to avail themselves of their goods and services.
The Exchange Hall provides browsing space, somewhere pleasant to sit and relax, and adds crucial dwell time in the market for those who find themselves in the Old City with an hour or so to spare.
In fact, we notice many visitors appearing to spend a whole morning or afternoon in the market overall.
Management have been very slow in recent years to re-let vacant stalls and enormous areas of the market building which ought to be generating valuable income remain unused.
There is no apparent plan to remedy this, despite the issue being raised by councillors at the previous meeting of the economy & skills policy committee in December 2024, as were the issues of night markets and seven day opening.
St Nicholas Market is ideally located in a historic Grade I listed building in the heart of the Old City, yet it remains closed on most Sundays and Bank Holidays.
A substantial majority of existing traders wish to and would open on those days were they given the opportunity. There is huge demand from the public, locals and visitors to Bristol alike, for us to be open.
The rest of the Old City would be invigorated with the extra economic activity generated.
Thousands of people have signed a petition against the proposed increased charges for market traders – photo: Martin Booth
We recently conducted a trial seven day a week summer opening period during July and August and found as the period progressed that footfall and turnover increased on every day of the week.
This was particularly reassuring as trade in the last quarter of last year and the first half of this year had been particularly bad.
St Nicholas Market is an asset that is much loved by locals and visitors to Bristol for its quality and diversity and its unique, quirky and independent spirit.
We urge councillors to use their powers to persuade the Economic Development Service and the market management to be more imaginative in the task they have been set of generating extra income for the city, and not to just expect the existing traders to shoulder the entirety of these massive fee increases with nothing in return.
This is an opinion piece by Andy Keith-Smith, the co-owner of Beast and Hey Jo Jo in St Nicholas Market
Beast is well-known for selling unique Bristol-themed t-shirts – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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