These are the first artist's impressions of a major new redevelopment of historic Barnet Market.

Owners Nigel and Melanie Walsh say the scheme is the only way of securing the 800-year-old market's future.

This week they won the backing of former owner Bill Young, whose family ran Barnet Market for nearly 100 years until 1999.

Plans to redevelop the St Albans Road site as a new landmark are currently with Barnet Council.

Proposals could cost between £800,000 and £1.2million but would be self-funding and not-for-profit. A 15-year covenant means the site must remain a stall market.

A glass-roofed stall area forms the centrepiece of the plans with eight studio flats and five one-bedroom flats above it.

Building would take place in two stages to allow the market to remain open. The design is similar to The Spires shopping centre, to fit in with its surroundings.

Nigel Walsh, 48, who bought the market in 1999 during its 800th anniversary year, said he could not guarantee the market's future without improvements.

"This is what stallholders have asked for. Business is down and we have lost some of our established stalls," he said. "We have put a lot of money into refurbishing stalls and rewiring the market and it's just sad to see it going the way it is.

"I think people like a more comfortable way of shopping, they have got used to superstores and we have to compete."

Mr Young, 87, and still a regular visitor to the market, said: "My chief concern at the time of the sale was to ensure the stall market continued. I spent a lifetime there and stallholders were getting into the third generation of families.

"As long at the market continues I wish Mr and Mrs Walsh and all the stallholders the best of luck for the future."

The market currently has around 50 stalls. Mr Walsh believes plans, which would see key stalls around the outside of the atrium with barrow-style stalls in the centre, might see an increase in numbers.

Mr and Mrs Walsh say they have almost unanimous backing from stallholders. They are waiting for planning permission before speaking to building companies.

While there is a great deal of pride about Barnet Market, shoppers do not support it enough, says Mr Walsh.

"People are passionate about the market but if they don't spend money here stallholders go out of business," he added.

"We want to see some fresh faces in the market there are loads of people who don't use the market."

What do you think of the plans? Please email your views totimesletters@london.newsquest.co.uk

Alternatively, write to Barnet & Potters Bar Times, 71 Church Road, Hendon NW4 4DN.

Barnet Market is also supporting the BBC's Children in Need appeal on Saturday with a number of events.

Key facts:

Barnet Market received its official charter from King John on August 23 1199

The Chipping prefix in Chipping Barnet's name means market

The market was originally sited south of St John the Baptist Church in the High Street

It moved to its current St Albans Road site around the turn of the 20th Century and switched from cattle to stalls in 1959

October 31, 2001 18:03

MATTHEW NIXSON