Traders at Watford Market have begged people to "give us a chance" after a lacklustre footfall in the first few weeks of opening at its new town centre location.

The stallholders say the move out of Charter Place has been "incredibly positive", but people have been hesitant to give the new-look market a try.

Dan Crawley, who runs Meanwhile, Across Town comic stall, said everything is in place, the building is great and the new market has a feel of Camden or East London - but it needs local support.

Dan said: "It’s been up and down to be honest at the moment.  This is a wonderful, modern, far more vibrant market. The move has been incredibly positive. We’ve got to get the footfall. A lot of people still don’t know we’re here or that we are open five days a week."

Fellow trader Jordan Glancy, of vintage clothing stall The Littlest Retro Shop, added: "We want more people to come down and check it out. Watford needs to give it a chance. This has been a really brilliant move for us. The location is so much better, and the set up is much better too - it’s more like a walkway of shops now, we love it."

Watford’s historic market celebrated its grand opening on the corner of Beechen Grove and Exchange Road on October 31.

With the new £2 million two-storey revamp, the market has an extended opening of 9am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

Stallholder Lynne Lawrence, who has run Lynne’s Sewing Box for the past 40 years, moved with the market.

She said: "This has much more of a market feel about it, it was a problem in the old market that people had to sort themselves out. This is what we needed to have and I’m very excited about it.

"We just need lots and lots of people buzzing about, we’re open from Tuesday so there is more opportunity for people to come in."

Mina Patel, who runs Shona Boutique gift stall, came to trade with the new market.

She said the customer range has been good, but word needs to get out that it’s not like the old market.

She said: "I opened with the market here, I’m a new trader. It’s been good, we’re getting a lot of different customers and different age groups. We need more local people in and for people to know where we are. People don’t have to go to the bigger stores to get what they want."