Chiswick Flower Market is back on Sunday 2 May as organisers hope it will encourage shoppers back to the High Road.

High street retailers and market traders have struggled during the pandemic, as many of them have had to stay closed for most of the year.

When the west London open air market started in September 2020, the first new flower market in London for 150 years, it attracted 7,500 visitors and many of the local shops and restaurants reported they'd had more customers on market day than they'd had all year.

Time Out promoted Chiswick Flower Market as the 'best thing to do in London in September'.

The organisers, local residents who volunteer their time to run the market, were able to run three markets in 2020, in September, November and December, attracting 18,000 visitors, rivalling the success of Columbia Road market in east London.

The flower market was chosen by the national High Streets Task Force as an example of how local initiatives run by volunteers can help regenerate the local economy.

When the market reopens on Sunday 2 May there will be traders selling cut flowers, bedding plants, bulbs for spring planting, houseplants, dried flowers, bouquets and arrangements.

They include very well-respected nursery owners such as Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants.

The multi gold award winners at the Chelsea Flower Show are retiring from Chelsea this year because it has been moved to September, so they will be selling their home-produced herbaceous perennials at Chiswick Flower Market instead.

Other traders who will be at the market include Columbia Road traders Steve Burridge, Jill Perkins, Steve Hudson and London House Plants.

West London growers include The Kew Plantsman, specialising in rare and unusual plants. Many of the plants on sale will have come from British growers, grown peat free at nurseries in the south east of England.

In the mix will be stalls selling Micro foods; Aubrey's Strawberries, herbs grown in from Pepperpot nursery and children's planting kits from Herboo.

Alongside the gorgeous array of cut flowers and live plants there will also be stalls selling plants pots and accessories.

As people are being encouraged not to use plastic bags, visitors can buy a stylish, Chiswick Flower Market branded jute bag to carry their plants home or if they live locally they can take advantage of the free delivery by bike.

The market will open between 9.30am - 3pm in Old Market Place, Chiswick High Road, W4 2DR (outside George IV pub; nearest tube Turnham Green on the District line).

Visitors can explore all that Chiswick has to offer, with its many quirky independent shops, cafes and restaurants, riverside walks and the newly reopened Chiswick House.

From May the Chiswick Flower Market is expected to take place on the first Sunday of every month throughout the year.

Chiswick Flower Market

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