It always seemed to be raining when I dragged myself out of a warm bed early on dark winter Friday mornings to go to St George's variety market in Belfast. Rain water would drip through the holes in the corrugated metal roof of the dilapidated, century-old Victorian building, the dampness mingling with the fusty smell of the bric-a-brac and second-hand clothes which looked like they had been just spewed out onto the wooden stalls. It was a cold and grimy place on the cusp of the city centre, both on the edge of the River Lagan and the verge of a Belfast way of life which seemed to be dying.
The lure for me was the cheap, fresh fish - rust-coloured mussels and tangerine-pink salmon steaks from Portavogie, Co Down. I would carry home my fleshy bundles while my flatmates still slept, musing on how I was going to cook up the weekly seafood treat - white wine and garlic for the mussels, cream and fresh dill for the salmon.
The Oxford Street market, in those pre-ceasefire days of my student life, was the sort of place that had character, vigour, and lots of rough edges. But the building itself was like a sick old man. Its handsome brick and sandstone facade was damaged by bomb attacks during the Troubles. The building was a much-loved eyesore, neglected and crumbling.
I revisited the 50,000 square foot market on a recent Friday morning to find it reinvigorated and transformed into a bright and airy place with whitewashed walls, a smooth concrete floor and, to my incredulity, clean toilets. Whereas before you just did your shopping and left, St George's Market is now the sort of place where you could be tempted to linger over a cup of tea and that Northern speciality, a bacon and egg soda.
Just eight years after Belfast's city councillors voted to eject the traders from the market, the grade A listed building has been given a new lease of life. The traders, many of them second or third generation stall-holders, ran a long campaign to save the market, before the British National Lottery came to the rescue. Its heritage fund has footed more than half of the £4 million bill for refurbishment work which was completed this spring. The remaining funding came from Belfast City Council, which owns the premises.
The market's leaky roof has been replaced with glass and white wooden panelling, its walls are hung with large turn-of-the century photographs of Belfast market scenes and its highly decorative cast iron columns and gates painted a cheerful racing green. The restoration is both tasteful and faithful, thanks to the discovery of the original 1860 architect's drawings, on linen.
Dignity has been returned to the market's re-pointed facade and it bustles with a new energy and confidence, attracting more than 5,000 people every Friday to its 200 stalls. Paddy Lynn, a local third-generation secondhand goods trader, is delighted with his newlook home-from-home, where his mother also runs a stall.
In between trying to sell a World War Two child's gas mask (£15), a 1900 oak towel rack (£20) and a cast metal and mahogany cinema chair (£50), Paddy summed up the market's appeal. "It's not just about buying and selling, it's about meeting people. It has a character of its own," he says. A woman interrupted Paddy's banter, inquiring about a standard lamp perched on his stall. "Twenty-five pounds for that, love. It was £30. It's a lovely one. I can show you it on. It has a big long lead 'n' all on it. It would cost £60 in a shop."
NO sale. Paddy picked up where he left off, with a potted history of St George's, the last remnant of ten 19th-century markets in the area which gave their name to this part of south-east Belfast. The last surviving old Victorian market building owned by Belfast City Council, St George's was built in portions over six years until 1896 to replace an earlier, smaller meat market. It sold butter, eggs, poultry, and fruit. Today, the Friday market, which kicks off at 5.30 a.m. and starts winding down around lunchtime, sells fish, poultry, meat and vegetables, variety, antiques and secondhand clothes and collectables.
On the day I visited, St George's customers included business people in smart suits from the nearby offices and legal professionals from the courts building. Middle-aged women were filling up their battered shopping trollies with food and haggling over clothes and bric-a-brac. Art student types wandered around, taking in the sights and smells of the place and its characters.
The air was filled with the scent of fresh fish, masked at times with wafts of greasy smoke from a busy burger stand. In one corner, canned laughter pumped from a large speaker on a stall selling cassettes of comedians; in another, Elaine Wood, a singer with glamorous red curls, was broadcasting her own CDs. In between there was laughter and craic and bargains.
St George's Market is the sort of place where, under one roof, you can pick up seven big pears for £1, Warner bras for 50 pence each (no return), scented insoles for 50 pence and a German second World War medal for £39.50. Packs of greyhaired women were huddled around a stall, so I went to take a look. It sold nylons - two pairs of "shiny tights" for 75 pence.
Paddy spotted a woman picking up a small Wedgewood plate on his stall and flicked back into sales mode again. "Four pounds for that, love. It's Wedgewood, very expensive. That's about £12 or £15 in the shops." She returned the plate and moved off.
The market has got busier since the refurbishment, Paddy says, adding regretfully: "We get a lot more sightseers". His dog, a chocolate-brown springer spaniel called Rolo, dandered up and perched himself on the worn velvet of the cinema chair. The sugar lolly a customer fed her earlier was still lying, sticky, on the stall. "She looks like you - ruff," quipped a regular.
The riverfront land across the road from the market used to be derelict and was used as a car park, giving the market an odd frontier atmosphere. But this land has been reclaimed and now houses Belfast's flagship Waterfront Hall, opened two years ago, a Hilton Hotel and the high-rise headquarters of British Telecom. New retail units with Victorian-style shop fronts have been installed along the market's Oxford Street frontage and a 6,000 square foot bistro-style restaurant is planned for a mezzanine floor overlooking the main hall.
The council's markets development officer, Gerry Copeland, a cheerful twentysomething who looks overdressed in his neat shirt and tie, says there are 1,300 workers within a quarter-mile radius of the market. The market building will soon host a Chamber of Trade fashion show, as well as craft and healthy living fairs and exhibitions. Gerry says the council is also planning a monthly farmers' market, where producers would sell directly to the public, and is trying to revive the old Tuesday morning market which specialised in second-hand goods, while the Friday market was known for its fish and vegetables.
I had a good Friday, and came away with a navy leather hatbox-shaped weekend case for £5, (I got £1 knocked off it without even opening my mouth), a Crazy Running Rat to torture my sister's cat with and, for old time's sake, four salmon steaks.