Preston Market to be reduced by 80%. Shouldn’t it be a heritage site by now?
The Hopetoun Tearoom on Bourke Street, The Drunken Poet on Peel Street, Mind Games on Swanston, Katik on Sydney Road. These iconic Melbourne locations all share something in common. They’re old. These businesses have been around long enough to see the best and the worst the world has to offer. They’ve fought tooth and nail to get through the ridiculousness that has been the last two decades. From the global financial crisis of 2008 all the way to COVID – hell, they’ve even survived online shopping. But what does it mean to us as the citizens of Melbourne when businesses like these are under attack from the inevitabilities of the world?
Say for instance, what if a business hub that has been bustling since 1970 (that’s over 50 years), is now battling – what can only be called – savage gentrification.
Now, just for clarification's sake, Preston market isn’t shutting down. Just as the helpful lady on the call line would inform me, “this is false information”. Rather, 80% of the Market’s land is being repurposed for various reasons. In layman’s terms, the Preston market will function on 20% of its original space, rather than the whole space it is currently occupying.
This helpful customer service worker also informed me that there is currently “at least 120” active stalls and stores on the premises. Now, how they expect to fit “at least 120” businesses into 20% of the space available is not my forte, but my guess would be that they don’t plan to do this at all. Rather, a non-renewal of contracts would be much more convenient.
What may not be considered in the 80% downsize, was the impact this would have on the business owners and operators themselves. Let’s simplify the math and say we have 100 stalls and businesses currently operating with one owner each. That’s 100 people.
Next, we consider that each business has 2 staff members. Were looking at 300 people now. That’s 300 people that would be out of work for months during the renovation and construction of the market – disregarding the cruel fact that most won’t be welcomed back once redevelopment is over.
Of course, we can’t forget the fact that businesses like The Fruit Station, Gerry’s Deli and N The Fish Monger have significantly more than 3 employees. I will mention – I’m no economist or business owner, however, even an Arts student from Broadmeadows knows it takes more than 3 people to run a business.
On another note, what isn’t often considered is the cultural development that a place like the Preston Market has created. Each one of the people who run the market has their own story, full of blood, sweat, and tears. Their livelihood, personalities and daily routines are set into the concrete they work on. To take them out of their home would be no different than cutting off a limb.
From customers that will order ‘the regular’ at Contraband Coffee Traders, to a classic South Melbourne dimmi. Humans were not made to fall out of routine; not to mention, COVID did that enough already. Individuals with a loss of income and feelings of displacement were found to suffer from “increase[d] risk of suicide”. People with low incomes are “more likely to experience psychological distress”.
I may be a little biased to the market myself. I remember being a 12-year-old, walking into Confectioners Favourite and buying my first Piping kit, heading home and baking way too many cupcakes just so I could ice them. Going to the market with mum, at just the right time to get the best deals we could at all our favourite grocers. Sitting for breakfast and a hot chocolate with my grandparents. Let’s not forget the events and live music that is ever present at the market. From a social anthropologist’s perspective, reducing the size of the market will jeopardise the culture built among the people of the market. It will feel like displacement. It will feel like an attack on their livelihood. It will feel like an attack on them as people. From a Human Geographer’s perspective, gentrification can often feel necessary to progress in life. It isn’t always true. While improving the way a location looks is important, it will push the people who live in Preston out. The massive immigrant and student populations that currently thrive in Preston will be chased out of their homes due to the inevitable rise in housing prices that will follow from the ‘revamping’ of a location the size of Preston Market. If the market alone isn’t enough motivation to fight the gentrification of this iconic Melbourne site, the forced displacement of the residents residing in Preston should be. From stories of immigration, to surviving a pandemic, the people of Preston market have held their own for generations. It’s about time we lend them a hand. Besides, of all the places to be shut down once the capacity of Preston Market is reduced, I doubt Aldi will be one of the places to go…
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