It’s closing time at the E5 Bakehouse under the railway arches at London Fields, in the east of the capital. In the back, past still-warm ovens, a group of East End traders gathers on benches. And as the Victorian sound of trains rattling overhead competes with speakers, something from a much earlier era is taking place: local businesses are meeting as part of a trades guild.
“Our story is typical of London now,” says Mark Brearley, professor of cities at The Cass, London Metropolitan University, and the proprietor of Kaymet, a supplier of aluminium trays and trolleys that was founded in south London in 1947.
Professor Brearley is addressing a group of small business owners who are concerned about challenges including rising rent, competition for space and higher business rates.
“A production economy that had been written off, assumed to be in terminal decline, has in fact returned to growth. Just as that starts to be evident, we get confronted by accommodation shortages and the threat of expulsion. We find that we need to put energy into fighting,” he says.
If there is to be a fight, these traders believe there is strength in numbers. They are part of the East End Trades Guild, a co-operative of small or independent businesses that have become comrades in battle. Foes include Transport for London, with companies in the railways arches worried that rent increases of between 200 and 300 per cent could put them out of business.
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They’ve called a temporary ceasefire on a wet Wednesday evening for their first social gathering. There’s charcuterie from Guild members Il Cudega, an Italian deli just around the corner, and local beer from Five Points.
Krissie Nicolson, the founding organiser, sits in the back. The 41-year-old got involved after reading an interview with Paul Gardner, a paper bag seller in Spitalfields, about his struggle to survive.
Mr Gardner is the fourth generation proprietor of the Gardners’ Market Sundriesmen, something of an Old Curiosity Shop and said to be the oldest family business in Spitalfields.
Community support shown to Mr Gardner, who said he feared that the 147-year-old company would face closure, led to the landlord softening a planned rent increase.
Inspired, Ms Nicolson started the guild in 2010, resurrecting a medieval model to protect common interests. She has adapted the structure to welcome different industries and has applied ideas she learnt studying community organising under Jane Wills from Queen Mary University of London.
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“In the strict sense what Krissie is doing isn’t a guild,” Professor Wills says. “She’s not controlling markets, labour, skills. But she is organising an economic interest group so that traders can have a voice in the economic decisions in the city.”
The guild works by building relationships with policymakers so members have a say in changes that shape their destiny.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, did not respond to a video invitation from the managers of E Pellicci, a family-run café that opened on the Bethnal Green Road in 1900, to join them and other guild members in December. So a group of members went to one of the mayor’s regular Question Time-style events, stood up together, and asked the mayor in person. He agreed.
“We were creative about it,” Ms Nicolson says. “The point is to strengthen collaboration and trade within the wider community. With Brexit on the horizon, relationships bring economic resilience.”
Manufacturers used to be a common sight in the capital, from textile and fashion industries clustered in east London to shipbuilding on the banks of the Thames. In the past century many of those industries have gone into decline. The number of manufacturing jobs in London fell by 51 per cent, from 264,000 to 129,000, between 1996 and 2015. It was almost the only industry to lose jobs over the period, according to the Office for National Statistics, with jobs in London in general up by 40 per cent.
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Yet in the past few years, the makers have begun to return. Offshore manufacturing has lost its allure, while improvements in technology mean that jobs are more highly skilled. Buyers are also starting to value homemade goods, slower processes and transparency in production
Professor Brearley, 54, is optimistic about the future of domestic manufacturing. He has counted more than 130 independent bakeries in London, 100 workrooms making clothes, more than 40 breweries and 20 leather producers.
Bilgehan “Han” Ates opened Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, the first denim factory in north London in 40 years, in April 2016. He spent his early career travelling to factories in Vietnam, Turkey and China for big fashion houses.
One day, long after he left fashion, he was shopping for jeans in Regent Street and bought three pairs labelled the same size. When he got them home he found the labelling was so sloppy, one pair didn’t fit.
Blackhorse Lane Ateliers is active in its community, offering locals a discount, running workshops and inviting in schools. At the social, other traders want to know how Mr Ates maintains that level of involvement while also running a business. He simply smiles and assures them that “it gets easier” with time.
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There are many other concerns. Chau-Jean Lin is the founder of Marulin, a small business importing Taiwanese tea. She says she is worried about currency fluctuation during Brexit. Someone else says that members struggle to find affordable space to expand their businesses or the skilled workers needed. One of these traders, Len Maloney, isn’t at the social. His garage, J C Motors, is in limbo while he waits for TfL to tell him about rent increases which he believes could prove fatal for his business.
“It’s important for kids to see that there are jobs for them within their community that don’t involve going to university,” he says later that week, remembering the former owner who once took a chance on him. Mr Maloney has since trained young men in Hackney as apprentices and some have gone on to become staff.
At the social, Ms Nicolson notes down traders’ concerns and then updates those present on a meeting with the mayor of Tower Hamlets about a potential asset transfer from the council. Members hope the council will transfer a building to the Guild to manage on behalf of traders. She adds: “We’re also working on defining affordable rent so we can discuss that with aggressive landlords.”
Once, traders might have joined a chamber of commerce to voice these concerns. Martin Saffer was the honorary ratings and evaluations surveyor for the Hackney and Tower Hamlets Chamber of Commerce for 20 years from 1979. In the mid-nineties, it merged with a larger north London group, leaving east London traders with no local organisation. He says the East End Trades Guild is filling that gap. “It’s not a wealthy location,” says Mr Saffer, who was brought up in Hackney. “A lot of people are out on a limb and don’t know where to turn.”
Like Mr Ates and Mr Maloney, Mr Brearley believes small traders need to be visible and to build relationships with the public and policymakers to survive.
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“Association gives voice, allows impact,” Mr Brearley says. “This is why I am so happy to be here tonight. The East End Trades Guild is a model we need others to follow.”
Graeme Craig, director of commercial development for TfL, said: “Independent businesses are very important to us. They make up the vast majority of our commercial estate.
“Our leases are flexible to reflect our tenants’ business needs. We work with each tenant individually and seek to agree fair rents that relate to comparable prices in the local area.”
Offering protection in an uncertain world
Over the past 15 years, the number of micro-businesses with no employees other than the owner has increased by 70 per cent (Hazel Sheffield writes). However, these companies’ share of total turnover fell from 7 per cent to 6 per cent over the same period, according to research by the New Policy Institute.
The East End Trades Guild says that it offers unity and protection in uncertain times as more people shun office work for independence.
Krissie Nicolson is paid to run the Guild out of subscription fees that start at £100 a year, but she sees her role as a facilitator for the 200 members, rather than a leader. She plans to train traders to take on franchises as the model spreads to other areas, much like shop stewards did in the unions.
“The challenge is getting local business owners to act like local representatives,” Jane Wills, of Queen Mary University of London, an expert in community organising, says. “Krissie’s job will be to support them so that they have time and energy to recruit new members.”
There is already interest in replicating the model in north London and Ms Nicolson hopes it can spread further afield.