Christmas @ Brick Lane Market

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

This was certainly the case on Sunday 2nd December, when FSM hosted a first ever market stall at the world famous Brick Lane Market, in the heart of London’s east end. The market at Brick Lane can trace its roots back to the 17th century, when it tended to the needs of farmers in the surrounding rural areas. However today, the market is synonymous with small, creative businesses and the thousands of Londoners and tourists who frequent there every year. To therefore call ourselves ‘stallholders’ for the day felt like a significant milestone for everyone at FSM.

Rising at 7am on a Sunday morning is never the best feeling in the world, but a hot pastry and a coffee from Pret sorts you right out believe me! The trek which followed on the Central Line eastwards was significantly quieter than normal needless to say. This was a bonus as the sheer amount of gear we were carrying made us look like the entourage of a Rick Astley farewell tour. Nevertheless, upon arrival the stall was set up around 10 minutes before the scheduled opening time, with the first visitors to Upmarket trickling through just after 10am.

Presentation is key, and so our most prized shirts were strategically positioned to ensure that we generated as many queries as possible from the inquisitive public. Despite this, our festive prize draw was the centrepiece of the stall. More than 50 entrants signed up to the Christmas raffle, with the winner announced over social media later on in the day as Georgia Scheffers, who landed herself an Augsburg 17/18 Home Shirt – nice one Georgia!

As the market drew to a close just after 5pm, we then headed to a Chinese restaurant to debrief the day’s events. Overall, considering the number of sales which were made and the strong level of public engagement, we are tinkering with the idea of another market stall at some point in 2019, but that’s not before we all sit down and enjoy the festivities! From everyone at FSM, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tony, James, Wolf, Max and Patrick :)