Endangered market

LONDON – In a historic market filled with diverse cuisine and a bustling maze of booths, Bubba Helberg stands out.

The Arkansas Cafe and Bubba’s Pit Barbecue isn’t what visitors would expect to find in Spitalfields Market, but there he is with a striped apron and a distinctly non-British accent.

Nowhere else in London will visitors find such authentic American barbecue, smoked next to the front door on a huge grill manned by Helberg.

Helberg, who grew up in El Dorado, Ark., about 120 miles from Little Rock, has been educating Londoners about the joys of genuine barbecue for 12 years.

Judging by the reservation-only lunchtime crowd, Londoners have enjoyed the lesson.

But never before has his restaurant’s home been so threatened. The market is near the skyscrapers of London’s financial district and is falling prey to developers.

“The tough thing is just the uncertainty of working in the market right now,” Helberg said, flipping steaks for the lunchtime crowd. “We all feel like we’re in limbo at the moment.”

The western half of the market has already been razed for a multistory office complex which is still under construction but already looms over the neighborhood.

In a city justifiably famous for its open-air markets and forever filled with tourists, the Spitalfields Market is a rarity – a charming, historic market near central London that somehow remains off the beaten path.

Under high Victorian glass ceilings and surrounded on four sides by weathered brick buildings, the open floor of the market is jammed six days a week with a maze of booths hawking antiques, fashion, ethnic food and music.

Founded on the site of a medieval fruit-and-vegetable market, Spitalfields Market was redeveloped in 1887 by the architect Robert Horner.

It sits only a few blocks from bustling Liverpool Street station in resurgent East London, yet it’s usually packed with a swath of London bankers, local residents and hip bohemian shoppers, not with tourists.

Those tourists who do find Spitalfields Market will find it smaller than the more famous Portobello Market and less modern than the street markets in Camden, but more authentic than either.

But don’t wait too long.

“It’s not just going to be a tragedy for this neighborhood, but a tragedy for the rest of London as well,” said Jil Cove, an organizer of Spitalfields Market Under Threat, a group that fought against the redevelopment. “Yet another historic site will lose its character and become just another shopping and eating venue for city workers.”

For now, the space within the market still retains the atmosphere of an old-time London market – distant music mingles and gets lost in the vast space under the ceiling, a thousand smells mingle in the still air and hundreds of people casually stroll between the booths.

There are constants amid the maze of booths at the market, such as the ever-present stands selling used vinyl and 1970s funk records and the silver jewelry merchants. The market is busiest on Sundays, but niche crowds flock to Spitalfields for theme markets on some weekdays.

Wednesdays alternate between deli markets and book and record fairs, and on Thursdays, antique dealers crowd the market with pocket watches, stamps and books.

Every Friday, the market becomes a venue for fashion and art, offering an ideal chance for young designers and artists to show their wares and for hipster shoppers to find the next big thing.

“People come here to find individual businesses and unique items,” said Nicola Standhope, a hat designer who sells at the market. “They come here to support young designers, which is hard to do in most of London.”

For those disinclined to browse or uninspired to shop, the Spitalfields Market also is choked with an array of ethnic food, more so than any other open-air market in town.

Besides Bubba’s excellent barbecue, there’s goulash from an Austro-Hungarian booth, Bami Goreng at an Indonesian eatery and crepes from a French restaurant. Another booth offers old fashioned candy and fresh-made fudge.

Areas packed with metal chairs and tables lend the ambiance of a sidewalk cafe to the outskirts of the market, where business people relax with mochas and sandwiches at lunchtime.

“It’s not going to be too long before it’s just another glass and steel shopping center,” Cove lamented.