East End Trades Guild

THE EAST END TRADES GUILD is a new co-operative of small independent traders working together in the interests of all proprietor-owned-and-run-businesses in the East End.

The catalyst for this initiative came when Spitalfieldsʼ oldest family business Gardnersʼ Market Sundriesmen, selling paper bags from the same building for over one hundred and forty years, was faced with a large rent increase sufficient to put them out of business. Such was the public outcry that the landlord relented, but the point was made that these small independents are the essence of the East End and they needed to band together to ensure their survival in these times of economic crisis and in the face of incursions by multiples.

Vital both to the local economy and to the life of community, it is the infinite variety of small traders that make the East End such an appealing destination, adding value to property and attracting other businesses. In the past, these truths have been ignored and exploited by landlords, their agents, big business and government. Speaking in unity, through THE EAST END TRADES GUILD, the traders are demanding recognition and asserting their central importance to the economy.