Paddys Market - The Final Curtain

A flea market and Glasgow institution going back over two hundred years was typecast an eyesore and not fit for a modern Glasgow. Masked as a regeneration project by Glasgow City Council and supported by local media and misleading crime statistics, the market traders fought a hard battle to keep the market open and to save their livelihoods. This short 10 minute film using bw photography and audio documents the fight to save the market, to the last week of trading and the funeral procession to the city chambers.


This film was part of my MA Documentary Photography Project -
Hope, memories, loss and community - Four stories of regeneration in Glasgow.


Using photography, video and audio this was a project aimed at capturing people's hopes, fading memories, lost livelihoods and the disappearance of homes and communities; issues that can be largely ignored in the utopian goals of regeneration. Now that the project is complete, most of the areas I documented no longer exist.

One year on from its closure Paddy's Market remains is an empty fenced off lane - some of the traders moved to the Barras but saw their income slashed from six to two days trading. The councillor who pushed for the closure of Paddys - Gordon Matheson, is now the leader of Glasgow City Council.

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