On a complete whim, in December 2019 we decided to host a market in our local library in Crystal Palace. With zero events experience and no real idea what the hell we were doing, the event went ahead. Like the crescendo of a cheesy 90s film, hundreds of people showed up and there was an absolutely electric energy in the air. It felt like magic! Like we’d finally found what we were always supposed to be doing.

Just one day later Liv got fired from her day job. Needing a way to earn a living and inspired by our all time favourite South London hero, Del Boy, she started visiting our local car boot sale on the lookout for cool homeware she could buy and sell. On one of her weekly visits she stumbled across a box of vintage theatre booklets. Each pamphlet had been carefully collected by a woman called Beryl over five decades; there were literally hundreds of them. As we looked through our box of treasure, we found so many for a show called Salad Days.

At a time in our life we both felt stuck, scared and fearful of the future, learning about Salad Days was like the epiphany we’d been waiting for, and suddenly we could appreciate the position we were in. Every negative was flipped on its head: being young, inexperienced and hungry for more meant life’s possibilities were at our fingertips. These were our Salad Days!

With a strong sense of enthusiasm, passion, and a willingness to keep forging ahead, we’ve continued running events ever since (You might know us by our old name: A South London Makers Market). The market has become a beacon for shopping small, and a place for positivity, community, and connection. We’ve now hosted more than 60 markets at some of London’s most iconic landmarks including Selfridges, Battersea Power Station and The Shard, and we’ve worked with over 1000 small businesses.

And we’re not stopping now! We’re on a mission to infuse this energy into the flailing world of retail and we can’t wait to see what the future holds. We hope you’ll join us on our journey, and come to one of our events soon. We’d love to see you there.