Mayor Joe Anderson has lent his support to the developers of the newest addition to the Ten Streets Creativity District – the Ten Streets Market.
The Mayor paid a special visit to the market ahead of its opening later this month to see how the former industrial warehouse on Cotton Street is being converted into Liverpool’s latest creative hot-spot.
To feature more than 25 arts, crafts, fashion and furniture stalls the market, which received planning permission last month, boasts two amazing new works of art – one a giant crouching child adorning a 20 foot high wall which invites the public to be the subject of his camera.
Local entrepreneur Tina Kavanagh spent years working within Liverpool’s social housing sector, with a focus upon social and urban regeneration.
Tina, along with her daughter Georgia, a young retailer whose Petticoat Lane shop Layla Star was, up until recently, a go to place for clubbers looking for the latest in fashion and accessories, have combined their experience to develop a new and innovative creative hub in the heart of the Ten Streets cultural quarter.
Tina said, “The reason we wanted to develop the Ten Streets Market, was that we felt there was a gap in the cultural market, for a family-friendly creative hub, where artisan and creative industries could incubate their businesses and develop the local creative economy. We wanted to provide a ‘bricks and mortar’ option for creative’s, who may have been selling their wares online, to enable them to present their products and services directly to the local marketplace.”
The market itself has been converted from an industrial laboratory, into a rustic multi-use market place. The emphasis, it to incubate new and existing business, that are in the creative sector but that emphasise the principles of ‘renewal, reuse, repurposing and reducing the local carbon footprint’ as much as possible.
Ten Streets Market, which lies just one mile north of Liverpool city centre, aims to provide a commercial, creative environment, encouraging the development of creative enterprises locally and enhancing the local and regional creative economy.
It will facilitate stallholders and independent creative business, to have a cost-effective customer facing retail presence, thus breaking down some financial barriers to trading, whilst still providing a bricks and mortar space, for new and emerging independent businesses, who might previously have been online, at home, or operating pop-up shops and who are looking to take the next step business-wise.
After visiting the Ten Streets market, Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, who led on creating a masterplan for the area, said: “’I’m hugely impressed by what Tina and Georgia have done and are doing to establish the Ten Streets Market. They’ve shown great entrepreneurial spirit to convert a former industrial unit into this quirky, cutting edge market come arts venue/studio which in many ways reflects the direction the Ten Streets District is now going.
“I’ve no doubt when the market opens it will be hugely popular, the roster of tenants is very impressive and the plans Tina and Georgia have for it as a creative hub will make it unique in North Liverpool. Just walking around inside and seeing the effort that has gone into the layout and the interior design will be a real crowd puller. This market will be a welcome addition to Liverpool’s retail and cultural offer and I’ve no doubt it will further drive the blossoming appeal of Ten Streets to other creative entrepreneurs.”
But Ten Streets Market is not just about the business, it also aims to provide space for families to visit and get involved in ‘making and creating memories’ in an accessible and less formal setting than some of the workshop spaces offered by educational and statutory organisations. This will involve providing craft classes for children and parents to create memories, using handicrafts of all types, within a creative space that has been repurposed from an old laboratory.
Ten Streets Market will also host small events, including corporate events, film screenings, and community events and will be open for business by the end of the year. Art studios and craft rooms will available for hire and film and photo shoots can be facilitated.
- Details of the formal launch will follow shortly, but for creative retailers, artisans or those involved in repurposing, reusing or creating in general, who might like a stall, a studio, or to hire the space for an event, please contact Tina Kavanagh on 07572868290.
