There’s something for everyone at the Southern Hub Family Market, which has been running out of the Southfield library hall for the past two months.
At the entrance, you can grab a piping hot speciality tea or coffee (it sometimes comes with a free running anecdote) and then head inside where the kids can put the squeeze on your for some goodies at the sweets stall before running off to the play area or the sand art stall.
If you’re feeling peckish, you can enjoy a corndog or crepe at one of the neatly arranged black-clothed tables decorated with proteas.
Bargain hunters can browse second-hand clothing, shoes and bric a brac. And there are hand-crafted leather goods for those with more money to spend.
Astrid Liddle, of Wynberg, is the market’s co-ordinator. She said many of the monthly market’s traders are regulars at other markets across the city. One stall holder had given up her business premises and now rotated her wares at the markets, Ms Liddle said.
Lyn Gilbert, of Lakeside, is a regular at markets, but she prefers car boot sales. She first heard about the market on Gumtree. “There was an advert for stall holders,” she said.
Ms Gilbert sells indigenous plants, which she cultivates herself. She proudly declares that all her plants are water-wise. She keeps several botany books at her stall so she can offer advice.
Ms Liddle said there is still room for more stall holders as the types of stalls vary from month to month. She started the market two years ago with a few friends, although she is now the only one still at it.
“I needed a hobby,” she said.
For Ms Liddle, the market is more about creating a place where people can socialise and build their small businesses than it is about making a profit. Stallholders pay a fee that covers the costs of hiring and rental.
“We support home and new businesses and everyone brings their little ones,” Ms Liddle said. “It was difficult to get a following because we didn’t have a regular venue.”
Eventually the market found a home in the Southfield library hall, where it has been for two months.
“The library is very supportive of our initiative,” Ms Liddle said.
* The Southern Hub Family market will have their next market, a games day, on Saturday August 27, from 10am until 2pm, at Southfield library. For details contact Astrid Liddle at 072 342 0460 or southernhubmarket@gmail.com
