Red Brick Market gets set to officially launch in its new bigger venue this weekend

Liverpool’s Red Brick Market is celebrating its move to a new bigger venue with an official launch party this weekend.

Red Brick Market has almost doubled its number of traders since it transferred from its original location in Cains Brewery Village to a site next to Baltic Market in mid-January.

Now with most of the building work completed, and more than 120 independents set up and selling a mix of vintage and new, Red Brick Market is throwing a free party on Saturday (Feb 25) from 10am to 6pm.

There’ll be DJs, live music, samba dancers and celebs on the guest list, plus coffee shop and bar R Social is opening too for its first day, providing a pitstop for food and drink in the market.

Owner Chris Day says he’s been absolutely blown away by the reaction from tenants and shoppers since they made the move just a few weeks ago.

“We did it intentionally at the beginning of the year because January, February and first few weeks of March is normally a really slow time for retail so we thought we’d do it while it was quiet,” he says.

“We really didn’t expect the response we’ve had but it’s been great so we’re delighted with how it’s going.

“Our existing 63 tenants moved over from the previous site, and we’ve actually gained another 60 brand new traders since then. We’ve only got 16 units remaining and a few little capsule spaces, and we’ve already got a waiting list for the mini units.”

Moving to the larger venue has given Red Brick Market more options, not just in the size of units but also the type of traders who are based there.

Chris estimates that around 40% are still vintage, something Red Brick is famous for, and the others are a variety of makers selling new pieces, so mostly small independent fashion designers, artists, crafts and homewares.

“There’s more variety in this space than there was in the old market building which wasn’t as workable, this one gives us more options to be flexible for traders,” he explains.

“Everyone associates us with vintage – it was originally called Red Brick Vintage and that’s what people come from far and wide for.

“We’re the largest of this kind of the venue in the North West that I know of, in terms of vintage stock quantity and variety. We have all different genres of vintage, so you’ll get traders with items from the 30s-50s, true vintage, then the 60s/70s, and 80s/90s.”

“But there are also a lot of modern sellers in there so we have a more eclectic mix. I think that’s why Red Brick has been getting such a varied footfall, and we’re seeing lots of families coming in.

“Young people are getting more switched on to vintage, they like the individual aspect and they don’t want to be contributing to the environmental problems around fast fashion, but not everyone’s into vintage so there’s more now for the younger generation and maybe mum and dad as well.”