For the past 30 years, Darren Jones has started work at 2am and spent the rest of the day standing outside his Bristol greengrocers in all weathers.
“In the summer, it’s a joy,” says Darren, shivering on a cold and windy Thursday afternoon in late January.
Darren says his early starts over the past three decades have meant ‘there’s no social life’ but the father-of-three children aged eight, five and three has no regrets.
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“It’s a treat to stay up after 10pm but I still get such a buzz from running this shop, it’s my livelihood but it has also been my life.”
But things aren’t what they used to be at East Street Fruit Market, which Darren took over in 2008, having managed the shop since he was 21.
Like so many traditional high streets, business is not booming in East Street and it’s not just the fallout from the pandemic that has decimated trade.
“This street used to be buzzing, but just look at it now, there’s nobody around,” says Darren as a handful shoppers and the occasional bus break the silence in the once-busy street.
Next to a secondhand mobile phone shop and a bakery that hasn't reopened since Christmas, East Street Fruit Market is one of the longest-established shops in Bedminster but Knowle-born Darren has seen huge changes in the 30 years he has worked there.
The latest headache for local traders around East Street is the roadworks and road changes nearby.
The Bedminster Green regeneration project includes thousands of new homes, as well as improvements for cyclists and pedestrians, but the ‘temporary’ changes to the surrounding roads will be in place until the summer of 2024.
For small independent traders like Darren, the lengthy roadworks and diversions, twinned with increased parking costs, means even less footfall than before.
Darren, who employs nine staff in his shop, said: "It’s one thing after another. First we had the residents' parking scheme, then we had Covid and now this.
“They put a 50p parking charge at the nearest car park and that stopped a lot of people using local shops, now they’ve shut off that road for two years without even informing us.
“The council says it wants to help the high street but people just aren’t going to bother driving all the way round to get to that car park to walk here.
“In two years, a lot of these businesses won’t still be here and that includes mine. My lease is up in November and I’m seriously considering what I’m going to do next.”
Darren’s frustrations over the way local businesses are bearing the brunt of the changes is twinned by concerns over whether new residents moving into the area will even shop locally.
“All these people moving into the expensive new residential properties being built have to work all day to pay their mortgages so they won’t be coming down to East Street to shop during the daytime will they?
“It might help a bit on Saturdays but not much else, and I think a lot of these units will be boarded up or be turned into residential, too.
“Just look around, there’s nobody walking past here and there’s no atmosphere, and we’re not getting any support at all.
“I think a lot of local people want to support East Street but everything is stacked against them, whether it’s because they have to pay 50p to park or drive the long way around to the car park.
“And why should they pay extortionate bus fares when they can just go to a retail park or Asda and pay no parking?”
Darren says takings are down ‘massively’ compared to pre-Covid despite the fact his fruit and veg is hand-picked by him at the market every morning and much cheaper than most supermarkets.
On the day I visit the shop, a bag of 12 kiwis is £1, blueberries are £1.49 a punnet and two 400g punnets of strawberries cost just £1.50.
“Covid has had a massive effect on us even though we were open throughout. We were busy with deliveries and our veg boxes but once it opened back up again, business just flattened because a lot of our older customers are frightened to go out.
“We’ve been doing veg boxes for about 10 years but you can’t beat seeing people coming through the door and seeing familiar faces and having a bit of banter.
“A lot of the older customers have found it really hard during the pandemic and suddenly we stop seeing regular faces - we don’t know if they’re just scared to come out or whether they’ve even passed away, which is sad because this has always been a bit of a community hub where people came and had a chat with people. We don’t get that anymore.
'Killer blow'
“A few years ago people were still coming down here to pay their electric bills, draw their pensions out at the post office on a Thursday, but it’s all online now.
“Sunday trading had a massive effect on high streets a few years ago but we don’t open on Sundays because of the cost involved with staffing.
“The killer blow has been the number of supermarkets that have opened around us. Since Asda, we’ve had Aldi and Lidl opening in the area and then Morrison’s at Hartcliffe, which had a major effect because all the people from that side of town stopped coming to Bedminster.”
Often dubbed ‘the voice of Bedminster’, Darren is well known in the area as ‘the singing greengrocer’ as he still shouts and sings prices and deals like costermongers of old.
Self-taught, he says it all started when he first worked in the shop and shouted out prices of fruit and veg that was being reduced at the end of a Saturday afternoon.
'Don't be shy pop in and buy'
His popular phrases include ‘come on folks, grab your strawberries - they’re so yummy they fill your tummy and taste so sweet they go down a treat’ and ‘don’t be shy, pop in and buy’.
“I enjoy the old tradition of costermongers and they just roll off the tongue now, but I sometimes make new ones up, usually whatever comes into my head.”
As we stand outside the shop looking at the quiet and empty street, I ask Darren what he thinks will happen next and would it not be good for the area if East Street welcomed more bars and restaurants like North Street around the corner.
“That was all run down and boarded up years ago but I don’t want East Street to be turned into another North Street.
“For one thing, if it did, then people might flock here and then North Street would be empty again.
“Our local BID has been trying to get a reduction in business rates down here but the problem is most of the places aren’t big enough to pay business rates.
“Why don’t they put on a free bus for people to get down here to make up for what they’re doing, or just advertise East Street a bit more.
“To be honest, I feel like there’s no future here and we’re not getting any help either. There are places down here that always used to be busy but owners are now saying to me if it continues like this, they won’t be open much longer, which is very sad.”
Council's response
Last week Bristol Live approached Bristol City Council about East Street traders' concerns about the roadworks, but the authority had not respond at the time of publishing.
Previously the Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said the road disruption was part of a positive improvement to Bedminster.
“These sustainable travel and heating improvements are exciting steps in the transformation of Bedminster Green into an environmentally-friendly, low-carbon neighbourhood,” he said.
“The wider regeneration project is a significant opportunity to bring the new and affordable homes we need to the city in a way that responds to the climate and ecological emergencies.
“Alongside making it easier to travel and heat homes more sustainably, the restoration of the River Malago will bring ecological net gains to the area, helping improve the local environment for residents and wildlife alike."
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