The power went off at around 6.30pm and the market was closed to incoming traffic until it returned at 2am when lorries were permitted to unload. The east-London wholesale site eventually opened to customers at 4am. At one point some 3,000 vehicles were queuing outside the market.
Chris Hutchinson, chairman of Spitalfields Market Tenants Association was full of praise for market superintendent Ken Alexander and his team from the Corporation of London. “The superintendent, the head of security and the head of maintenance all came back to work straight away and worked through the night to get the market open,” said Hutchinson. Six weeks ago Alexander made the suggestion that the market should have emergency generating capacity.
“With the building of the Olympic Village due to start this sort of thing is likely to happen again,” said Hutchinson. “We will shortly be getting our own generator contract so that we are equipped for next time.”
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