Kingston Council has announced Kingston 2025, a year-long initiative to celebrate the town’s cultural heritage, alongside the appointment of a new market operator to revitalise the area.
This comes after a council survey, which received 168 responses, revealed that the community wished for an enhancement of the area’s unique heritage.
Frances Marsh, a resident of New Malden, said: “It is an area of historical and cultural significance, which is being allowed to degenerate into what is fast becoming a second-rate shopping centre. Kingston has got just about everything going for it — location, a river, a lovely park and what used to be a great marketplace. It really is a crying shame.”
The initiative will run in 2025 to celebrate the 1,100th anniversary of the crowning of King Athelstan in Kingston and will include a programme of events and activities to explore the past and present of the town.
The programme officially kicks off on 3 May and will see performances and projects centred around the local community.
Athel’s Town Tournament will take place from 26-27 July, a free two-day event for families to immerse themselves in Kingston’s history. Saturday 6 September will see a River Cultures Festival, which will have a flotilla of boats pass from Hampton Court to Canbury Gardens.
Kingston local Jayendra Thakerar, said that the town needed schemes like this to renew the town centre, adding it was “money worth spending”.
In addition to a cultural programme running from May, the council has announced its plans to revamp the marketplace under a new operator from April 2025.
The market is currently operated by Kingston First, the town centre’s Business Improvement District, which also works to enhance the local economy, support local businesses and promote Kingston as a vibrant destination for shopping and leisure.
The council hopes to turn the market, first recorded in 1242, into a year-round cultural and commercial destination, bringing the Ancient Market House and the surrounding areas into one management arrangement.
Tim Meads’s family first opened their fish stall in Kingston Market in 1866, and he believes the market’s glory days are over.
“I don’t think there’s anything ancient-looking about this market anymore. People don’t come around anymore. You’ve got all empty buildings, and people aren’t going to pay £13 to park the car to walk around and look at empty shops,” he said.
As part of these plans, the council has said it will improve market visibility through promotion and branding, increase footfall and trade and introduce twilight and evening trading hours.
The new operator, which is yet to be announced, is due to start in April 2025.
Mohammad Alaryan, a fresh produce seller, laid out his hopes for the new operator.
He said: “The current operator is more concerned about the shops. So, as long as the new operator cares about the market, then, hopefully, it will do well.”
