Basildon.info – Basildon History

Basildon’s original town centre market opened around 1958,shortly after the town began developing as a New Town. It was located in Market Square, right in the heart of Basildon. The market quickly became a hub for both locals and visitors.

Over the years, the market included a variety of stalls. There were traditional stalls, log cabins, fixed units, and mobile stalls. Traders sold a wide range of goods, with fresh fruit and vegetables being a major part of the market. At one point, there were as many as 19 greengrocers. Other stalls offered clothes, household items, and general merchandise, making it a typical town-centre market with something for everyone.

The market was also home to The Moon on the Square, a public house created from older shop units. It opened as a Wetherspoon pub in 1996 and operated for many years before closing in 2022 during a redevelopment of Market Square.

In recent years the old market site was redeveloped. Traders moved to a new market in St. Martin’s Square, which includes modern kiosks and space for pop-up stalls. This keeps Basildon’s market alive while providing a cleaner, more organized space for shopping.

The Old Market

The old Market Square market changed considerably during its many years in the town centre. What began with relatively simple stalls and mobile shops gradually developed into a much larger and more permanent market. The introduction of the wooden log cabins gave the market its distinctive appearance, while traders continued to use a mixture of stalls and other temporary structures. The market became a familiar part of everyday life in the town, with many local traders building up regular customers over the years.

The variety of goods available was one of the market's main attractions. Alongside the large number of greengrocers, there were traders selling fish, meat, clothing, shoes, fabrics, haberdashery, toys, household goods, hardware and other everyday items. Some businesses remained in the market for many years, and the market developed a reputation for having independent traders and characters that gave it an atmosphere quite different from the larger shops and shopping centres nearby.

The old market was closely surrounded by the original 1950s town-centre buildings of Market Square and Market Pavement. Over time, many of these buildings changed hands and uses, with familiar businesses coming and going. Eventually the western end of the town centre entered a major redevelopment programme. The Market Square buildings that had stood for more than six decades were demolished during 2025, completely changing the appearance of the area.

Today, the former Market Square site is no longer a traditional market. It forms part of a major redevelopment of the western side of Basildon town centre, with the old buildings removed to make way for new development.

Basildon’s IT College

A new Centre for Digital Technologies opened in Basildon town centre in 2021, built on the former site of the old Market Square market. The three-storey building became part of South Essex College and was designed specifically around modern digital education. Students can study subjects including IT, IT networking, app development, games design, games development and animation, with the college providing specialist technology and modern facilities. The new campus brought education and digital skills back into the heart of the town centre, creating a very different use for a site that had previously been home to Basildon’s traditional market.

The New Market

After the old market left Market Square, Basildon Market moved to St Martin's Square in 2018. The new market was designed very differently from its predecessor, replacing the old mixture of log cabins and temporary stalls with 46 modern Italian steel kiosks. Although the appearance changed dramatically, the idea remained the same: providing independent traders with a central place to sell directly to the public.

The new market offers a mixture of businesses and services rather than concentrating on one particular type of product. Visitors can find fresh produce, clothing and fashion, food and drink, sweets, bags and leather goods, beauty services and other specialist stalls. There are also spaces for pop-up traders and events, allowing the market to change and introduce different businesses over time.

The move to St Martin's Square means that Basildon's market tradition has continued into a new generation. While the wooden cabins and familiar layout of the old Market Square are now part of the town's history, the modern market provides a more contemporary setting while retaining the independent-trader character that has been associated with Basildon Market for more than six decades.