Thousands of people flocked to events organised by Bradford Council to celebrate the opening of the brand-new Darley Street Market with one vendor running out of pizza dough and selling almost a pizza a minute on opening Saturday.
Estimates suggest that over 21,000 people visited Darley Street Market over the weekend of Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 July.
During the opening weekend of celebratory events, vendors on the top floor Darley Street Kitchen, reported a brisk trade with some produce selling out completely, including Pizzeria Il Forno who ran out of dough by 4pm on Saturday and reported selling around 280 pizzas in just five hours of trading, averaging of 56 pizzas sold every hour.
Simone Alrababa from Pizzeria Il Forno, who also runs Caffe Brigante in the market, said: “We were blown away by the number of customers, so much so that we ran out of our pizza dough on Saturday of the opening weekend. The response from people to the new market and to our food has been amazing. We’ve had people of all ages and backgrounds coming to try our authentic Italian pizzas and loving them. Our ground floor cafe is also a hit! People are raving about our traditional breakfast and the excellent coffee and Italian pastries.”
They weren’t the only ones selling out – Northern Monk reportedly sold out of beer on the Sunday afternoon of opening weekend. After a quick restock – the pints have continued to flow since market had its official opening on Thursday 10 July.
Russell Bisset from Northern Monk said: “We thought that we’d have more than enough beer to last us the opening weekend, but the demand was phenomenal. The feedback we’ve had about the market, the opening weekend events and our offer has been great. It’s only been open two weeks, and the market is already becoming a place for people choosing to begin their night out. Folks have been coming in to get food and a drink before heading to the theatre or for an event at Loading Bay or a gig at Nightrain. The market is also the ideal stop for a drink or a bite to eat between the bars at bottom of town and North Parade.”
And it wasn’t just Darley Street Kitchen drawing the crowds – Dale Farm Foods located on the Fresh Food Hall had stocked up for the whole weekend of trading but had run out of stock by close of business on the Saturday of opening weekend.
Keiley Hartley from Dale Farm Foods said: “We were overwhelmed by the reaction and demand on opening weekend. We did so much trade on Saturday that we’d run out of stock for Sunday. We’ve continued to see a steady stream of customer coming through the doors and visiting us. It’s been great to see our old loyal customers who used to come to us at Oastler returning to us at Darley Street Market as well as new people coming to our stall. We also had people say they’d not been in to Bradford in a while but, that they would definitely be back to shop in the new market on a regular basis.”
Gunther from Roswitha’s Deli, which is also on the Fresh Food Hall, was so busy that they’ve had to take on new staff to keep up with demand and said: “We couldn’t believe how busy we’ve been right from opening on the Thursday. We realised then that we wouldn’t have enough staff to cope with demand over the weekend, so we decided to take on more people to help us keep up. We’ve seen so many returning customers from when we were in the Oastler Market as well as new shoppers discovering us for the first time. Our deli sandwiches are going down a storm.”
Traders from the Lifestyle Hall have also reported being busy.
Vinesh Chauhan from A&Js Shoe Repairs said: “I would just like to say the new market is amazing. Trade for the last two weeks since we have opened has been really good. We’re well known to a lot of our regular customers as we have been established over 38 years, and we are now seeing new faces every day.”
Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Executive Member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport said: “The feedback that we have received from traders and people who have visited the new market has been tremendous. Over the weekend of events to celebrate the new market we had traders selling out of produce, taking on new staff and rushed off their feet trying to keep up with demand.
“The response from shoppers ever since opening has been really positive. We’ve seen comments from people who used to shop at the old markets as well as people who’ve either never been the city centre or haven’t been in for a while, coming in and shopping at Darely Street Market or enjoying food and drinks from Darley Street Kitchen. The market has continued to be busy since we first opened the doors. We’ve seen people come in with their kids for an after-school ice cream or milkshake as well as people coming with colleagues for lunch or for after work drinks. We hosted events as part of the Festival of Latvian Culture last weekend and this was an amazing use of the space. There is so much more planned, and today and Saturday the market will be used to host events as part of BD:Festival.”
Gary Jaques, President-Elect of the National Market Traders Federation who visited the market on its first day of trading said: “It was great to meet with traders and have a look round this new market. Darley Street Market in Bradford is amazing and I can safely say it’s the best modern market that I’ve seen in the UK.”
