Call For Closure Of Paddy's Market, Glasgow Councillor Gordon Matheson' plea Options

[GG]

Glasgow Councillor Gordon Matheson has called for the historis Paddy's Market in Glasgow to be closed down as he claims it has become a "crimeridden mess". Councillor Matheson says hundreds of crimes including attempted murder and serious assault take place at the market every year, adding that council taxpayers have to foot a £300,000 each year to clean up the mess left behind by vendors and customers.

Claiming that the market is in the grip of organised crime Councillor Matheson said,

"The market's nature has changed and there are now real concerns about the amount of crime associated with it. It used to be a respectable working class market where people would go to clothe their family. Now there is drug dealing and selling of contraband like alcohol, cigarettes and music. This is not someone like Derek Trotter trying to make ends meet but a front for organised crime and serious criminal offences."

Councillor Matheson added that he was shocked by statistics released this week which show 1926 crimes were committed at or near the market in 2005/6.

He went on:

"They ranged from attempted murder to serious assault, shoplifting, drugs and breach of the peace."

Paddy's Market operates on land and arches at Shipbank Lane which is owned by Network Rail and managed by Spacia.

According to Councillor Matheson,

"Network Rail gets £130,000 a year in rent from the market traders, but not a single one of them has applied for a market trader's licence. It is estimated it costs the public purse £277,000 a year to clean up an area which has become a crime ridden midden. The days when Paddy's Market made a contribution to the city are over, it has changed and in my opinion it should be closed down."

A Network Rail spokesman said:

"Paddy's Market is a long standing site for market traders in Glasgow. Illegal traders are not welcome at the market. However, Network Rail relies on Glasgow City Council trading standards and local law enforcement to police the site."

However, many Glasgow residents have noted their opposition to closure of the market, saying that Paddy's Market is a Glasgow institution which offers a unique opportunity in the city to find a special bargain. Other residents compained that Councillor Matheson was ignoring the needs of Glasgow's poor in a rush to "yuppify" all areas of Glasgow city centre.

GG.

[marydee]

Paddy's Market is I'm afraid a dump and a blot on the face of a modern city like Glasgow when what they sell second hand can be bought new, two steets away, just as cheap. It has served it's purpose and the days when the traders cleared 'big houses' and sold good quality goods at bargain prices have long gone. The stalls in the arches stink of damp and the stuff sold in the lane off of sun loungers is usually splattered with mud if the weather has been at all bad. The areas around both ends of the lane are gathering places for drug addicts and drunks and even I born and bred in Glasgow and scared of very little would not venture down there alone.

[penny dainty]

I was only ever in Paddy's Market once when my Mum took me through it as a shortcut , cant remember where we were going , I thought it was the worst place ever, dirty , smelly place .I was about 10 at the time and am surprised it wasnt done away with years ago.
My Mother used to liken my bedroom to Paddy's Market at times, no there were never any drug dealers in it, it was the mess she was reffering to.

[fourbytwo]

There has been much discussion about the relevence of 'Paddy's market", most of which eminates from Council officials trying their best to close Paddy's as an eyesore.

much of what has already been stated is true, it is an unsavoury place, and it does smell....but this is not down to the stallholders, or the visitors.
It is the way that empty spaces in and around Paddy's are allowed as 'dumps' and much industrial waste can be seen and smelled there.
Let me be clear, on a personal and observational basis...........

Paddy's is NOT the centre of all villainy in Glasgow, nor does it harbour criminals, nor condone criminal activities, but lets be truthful folks, every street corner has its 'dubious characters' hanging around.

When the Council in its 'wisdom' transformed the Briggait to be an upper-class shopping and services mall, it fell flat on its a...!, and after spending all that public money, started looking for a way to 'pass the buck', Paddys was custom made for it.

When the Council try to spend lavish amounts of Council Tax on 'how great and modern Glasgow is', places like Paddy's and the Blochairn Car Boot Sale tend to be 'mislaid', as we/they cannot accept that in this day and age, severe poverty is still rampant around Glasgow.

It is 'offensive' to see people rummaging-around second hand clothing, and not the image the Council or its officials need when selling us to investors.

To add even more disruption to the Council's image of the area, just a few yards from Paddy's we have one of the most expensive and up-market places in town, King Street, Merchant City etc, are there to attract middle-class money to shop there, and Paddy's, once again is an embarrassment to them.

The City Centre 'crime corridor' as much publicised as being Paddy's, actually stretches from the Central Station through St Enoch's Square, past Paddy's and on to the Gallowgate and Barrows.

People should try to walk that route, and then tell me about crime.....!
Another example of how the Council ignore their own poverty statistics, was when a "Royal Personage" was about to open the new High Court, remember that.....?

Fleets of fencing contractors and street cleaners, moved on to the site, quickly followed by the Parks department emptying their greenhouses to put flowers and urns all over the place......all to ensure that no 'offensive' images were seen by this 'Royal person'.

Paddy's market and Blochairn are 'heaving' with people looking for bargains, most of which is clothes for their family, that they cannot afford from expensive shops, so lets put an end to this victimisation..... poverty still exists and by closing Paddy's you simply move the problem on, and into the hands of the 'real' villains.

Many, many European cities have very busy 'flea markets', and it is a testamony to history that these are exceptional popular with tourists etc, allowing for the same support and monitoring by
'level-headed' Council officials here, why couldn't Paddy's become such an attraction....?

The answer lies with the Council, whose policy of wholesale demolition of old properties to become lifeless office blocks, is why Glasgow has become a souless place to live.....shop there OK!, but live there.....too expensive, and bureaucratic...!

[GG]

I went to Paddy's Market last week for the first time in a long while and took a couple of pix below. I must say that the place was a bit 'messy', but it was not unpleasant or intimidating. There were in fact a wide range of people, but in particular I was struck by the number of non-white families who were browsing for bargains, possibly migrant workers' families or families of asylum seekers. It appeared that Paddy's Market was serving a particular niche market which, while not necessarily the most 'attractive' to those who market the city centre, deserves to be served.

I saw very little evidence of "contraband like alcohol, cigarettes and music" which the councillor mentions, but admittedly I didn't spend any time looking for it and I didn't venture 'underneath the arches'. I did see a great deal of videos and second-hand clothes being sold by traders.

GG.

[Rabbie]

I dont think it should be closed down, its a long standing part of Glasgow culture.

Used to get ma clathes from there when hand me doons whurr to big fur me.

Maybe, it needs to be *tidied up* up a wee bittie.

Wish yon over paid cooncilers wid shut thier geggies, always moaning aboot something and wanting to pull things apart.

look at the mess they made in 60 / 70 / 80 /90 /00's ... bamsticks the lot oh them. Send them to the cold front!

[Java]

Ye know, ah love 'flea' markets when that's what it actually is....second hand stuff....too many are ruined by the same cheap imported stuff that ah can buy on practically every stall there....

[Gallusbisom]

Back a few years ago when I finally convinced my Mum to go "home" (she was in her 80's) we went and we (HRH and I stayed in Stockwell St. Mum stayed with her youngest bro. ) I went walking with HRH one morning and ended up at Paddy's Market. We had a great time, we bought old books about Govan, Maryhill etc. (mind you they did smell a little off) but I was glad to get them. When I told my uncle that I had been there his remark was "you have done more than I would do". I, at no time, felt scared or that we were under observation and we were very obviously tourists (could it have been the cameras hanging from every arm, neck etc.?) Let well enough alone, I say. I know full well that we were spotted as tourists and probably charged double what would normally have been the price. So what? I was so thrilled to get the books, probably out of print by then, that I would have paid double the price. (OK maybe not double, I knew I was being rooked but what the heck, how often do you get to go home?

GB

[Mahegradon]

Paddy's Market isn't the same these days. I remember in the late sixties there were lots of dingy wee second hand shops in Clyde Street that sold old uniforms and militaria from the 1900s. Most things for under 5/-, or 25p for the uneducated. Or there were junk shops where you could find a spare part for whatever it was that needed fixing. Things don't get fixed anymore, because there's nothing inside to fix. So it goes on the scrapheap for the sake of a buggered switch.
Once these places closed (or fell) down we were left with Paddy's Market itself, and it was never the tidiest looking place you ever saw, pretty seedy really. And it's been going downhill ever since. I've jist realised what I've written. What odds would ye have got for somebody sayin' that aboot Paddy's?
I hear that Paddy's Market in Liverpool is quite a successful tourist attraction, but I think oors is doon the stank!
Still, it holds happy memories for me. That's where I got engaged, because that's where I took my wife to buy her her first pair of shoes.

[agnesb]

Hi Rabbie, agree with what you say about Paddy's market being part of old Glasgow culture


Hi fourbytwo, also agree with your post


And I have always believed that instead of closing it down it should be cleaned out top to bottom,and all freshened up and have a good mix of units for second hand goods, Antique/Collectables, handcraft and pottery units so visitors to Glasgow can by crafts made in Scotland, also maybe let folk try their hands at making their own wee piece of Pottery things like that , there could also be a unit for people of Glasgow to meet up and have a wee blether or something, but I suppose that would be asking too much o'h the council eh, they( the council) probably think allowing so called des res buildings to go up will improve the place for the better but I don't think so, just look at those flats at Moir Street looking from London Rd side I noticed the building looks more like a slum dirty big brown marks down the walls like someones guts had run oot oh them and run down the outside of the wall horrible so it is but hey thats what the council and probably others call improvement, wouldn't it be lovely to demolish that lot who are wanting to close it down

Agnes

[*CallyDosh*]

The people in Paddys Market are the same type you get everywhere in Glasgow. I worked there for a few years and yes there are some unsavoury people there, as there are everywhere. We are not talking about walking about at night in that area, but daytime is as safe as anywhere else in Glasgow or any city. I never had any bother.
The Council should have cleaned the area up and put some control on the vendors and cleaning after themselves. Not gotten rid of a piece of special living History. Most large cities abroad have these small markets nowadays.

A sad sad Day when Paddys Market Closed, or as I called it the Briggait.

[*Sam Hepford*]

I am American have been to Galsgow as a tourist many times over the years. There are so few places in America that have a real sense of place at all. You can travel from St. Louis, Missouri to Seatle, Washington and it is all fairly much the same. Glasgow is different. A few of the wonderous things that make it so are the Barras, Sauchiehall Street and the Gallagate, the People's Palace, Glasgow Green, and the McKintosh (and even the fakeintosh) architecture. But also there was Paddy's Market, warts and all. It was real as Glaswegians are real, both toffs and poor folk. It was real as Will Fyffe was real. And it is a sad thing to hear that it is gone. If it was a midden, then have the stall owners clean it daily. If there was drugs dealing, have a stronger police presence. But for goodness sake, do not make war on the very things that identify Glasgow as itself.