I agree with a lot of slondon's post. I've only lived in FH for 7 months (although v nearby since 2008) and while I have visited the lovely Dartmouth Rd shops plus the fab coffee shops near the station - and love them - it is next to impossible for me, as a carless, stay-at-home mum, to drag my two kids around those shops for any length of time during the week or weekend - my toddler would want to eat/handle everything/get bored and my mobile baby is starting to go the same way! So while, if I ever get a childfree minute I'd love to meander around (and I do do this, it's just REALLY rare!! And I always heartily recommend the centre and its environs to all my friends without kids plus my friends with just one v young baby) for us as a family the Horniman market has been a godsend and a way of actually getting to sample the shopping delights of the area WITH the kids in tow. We can look at produce, buy lunch and chat to sellers at the market whilst keeping one eye on toddler in sensory garden or clambering over low walls etc. It's much better *for families* than the wonderful Brockley market and also has the attraction of providing a guilt-free family morning out for the whole gang - going to the Horniman is always exciting for a 3yo, eating out and shopping in gift, art, clothes shops not so much and he is wise to that already!

I can't be sure but I would say most people attending the market have young families in tow too so we are likely highly representative, and probably more likely to repeat a market-museum-walk combination each weekend than couples or singletons who probably have more exciting lives and mix it up a bit more! Like previous posters, for us we are diverting cash, for definite, from Ocado and Sainsburys Sydenham, plus avoiding the need to sign up for Abel and Cole or similar, possibly Brockley but we only went there every couple of months anyway. Also the pricing issue is important - buying our veg, bread, light lunch and enjoying the process is lovely but not too costly, going into the shops on Lordship Lane or Dartmouth Rd is likely to be a more tempting and expensive affair and not one many young families can dally with too often, so the demographics of the regulars at the market probably reflects this too *wistfully laments having a salary and frittering away £20 on a nice top, sometime circa 2009*.

Anyway, this thread HAS made me think, and if the elusive moment arrives where baby is asleep in the sling and 3yo at nursery, I will try to head to Dartmouth Rd to start my Christmas shopping. I wish all traders and the market heaps of success and think the way the wonderful area of FH is going, there must be room in this town for the lot of you!!