The Pitt Market: First look at Granton venue opening this year

Edinburgh Evening News

The new incarnation of The Pitt - Edinburgh's popular street food and retail market, will open in Granton at the end of the summer. We went along for a look.

Transcript

00:00When a popular street food market closed two years ago, many locals were left disappointed

00:06and local food and drinks traders were left without a prominent location to do business

00:11under a brand that had established a loyal customer base in its seven-year journey.

00:16The award-winning Pitt Market in Leith closed its doors on Pitt Street in October 2022 to

00:22make way for a planned redevelopment, but soon there will be a new destination for food

00:26and drink lovers. With the Granton Market set to open by the end of summer, the new

00:31space will be nearly three times larger than the original site, include an event space

00:36for up to 750 people, continue to champion local businesses and work with the local community

00:42on a range of projects.

00:44Well, it's been a nice long journey so far. It's been about two years when we first identified

00:50this site to being the one that we wanted to move to. And now we have planning permission,

00:56the first building warrant is in and we have the rest of our design details done and our

01:02contractors lined up. So we're pretty much at the beginning of the build and at the end

01:07of this first phase.

01:09And with the coastal location benefiting from larger facilities, the Pitt Market can provide

01:14more opportunities for traders to grow their brand and help new companies emerge onto the

01:19scene, something co-founders Hal Prescott and Scott Kirkham have overseen since its

01:25inception in 2015.

01:27You know, we'll be open a lot longer. We'll have better facilities here. So we hope it'll

01:32be quite a bit more relaxed during the week. But yeah, still the same really fun atmosphere.

01:36We were Scotland's first sort of street food focused market. And we've been sort of pioneering

01:43the way since then. It was me and Scotty, we were both traders originally and there

01:46was nowhere to trade. That's where it came about from. So we understand it from the ground

01:51up and we just want to be a place where people can come and taste some amazing food and also

01:56try out their business ideas and take the first steps towards being self-employed.

02:02Now with this sort of new incarnation here, we're going to solidify that a bit more and

02:06we're going to offer our traders mentorship. But I think what's most important is that

02:12we create a community where the traders can all feed off each other and give best practices

02:16and that sort of thing. And that's kind of the more important part of it that we feel.

02:22We're stood here on the promenade. This will be the main entrance and exit way for the

02:27general public. And you'll kind of walk into the outdoor market with this sort of mix of

02:32different traders and shipping containers and whatnot. And then you walk through into

02:37the indoor market, which will have, you know, lots of seating, a bit of a child's area,

02:44the toilets and the rest of the facilities. And then through that, you can enter into

02:48the event space, which is yet 700 people standing. What's really exciting is that we're just

02:54a third of this site. Beyond that, there's really big plans to have lots of other interesting

02:59businesses that we can talk about soon, hopefully.

03:03The Pit Market team has already established strong links with the local community ahead

03:07of their grand opening later in the year, working with youth groups who will use the

03:11space for workshops and activities. And the feeling of community is also shared amongst

03:16the food and retail traders, with around 50% of stalls dedicated to start-ups who will

03:22receive mentoring as they embark on their business venture.

03:25We're going to have traders that some people recognise who have been around for a while.

03:31And then we'll have another set of traders who have only just started trading and some

03:34that this will be their first time trading. The idea is that the traders that have been

03:38here for a while, that have a bit of a brand, they're going to show people how to trade

03:44and this is kind of what it's like. And then we'll have these new traders learning as they

03:48go along. We hope within 24 months, they'll be ready to take the next step, whether that's

03:53in getting a bricks and mortar restaurant or getting on the festival food circuit or

03:59something like that. It's super humbling to see people start their business, develop it

04:06and then go on to be successful and have multiple outlets, all really good at what they do.

04:13But it's also a place where people can come to fail and it's not going to be as suffering

04:20as if they had gone and got a shop or a 10-year lease on something like that. Street food

04:24is grassroots catering and hospitality and it's nice to be able to mentor people and

04:30give people a shot at doing something that maybe you always wanted to do. And it either

04:33opens another door or they decide that maybe it's not for them or they try something different.

04:38So it's really a test bed for that. That's what it's all about for us. It's working with

04:44independent suppliers, working with independent businesses and traders and people aspiring

04:48to be entrepreneurs themselves. And that's what kind of makes it so exciting. And you

04:51can kind of, by doing that, you get to speak to the people making those products and producing

04:58those things. So it's just, that's what's so exciting.

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