Moving Markets: Mobility, Memory, and Urban Transformation in London and Hong Kong

About the lecture

Street markets are vibrant laboratories of mobility where goods, bodies, and cultural practices circulate, revealing the relational processes through which urban life is continually reconfigured. This lecture examines the redevelopment of street markets in London and Hong Kong to interrogate how mobility operates not only through migratory and economic flows but also through the rearticulation of public space and the lived heritage of urban communities.

Drawing on comparative case studies—from Brick Lane Market to Brixton (and more recently Mercato Metropolitano) in London to Graham Street and Pang Jai (and many dawn markets) in Hong Kong—the lecture analyses how redevelopment projects materialise broader tensions between neoliberal urbanism, spatial governance, and communities’ resilience. Historically shaped by migrant entrepreneurship and informal exchange, these markets have recently faced increasing pressures of gentrification and socio-spatial sanitisation. Yet they (partially at least) persist as sites of affective attachment, negotiation, and resistance, where grassroots actors contest dominant urban imaginaries and advocate for inclusive, place-based futures.

About the speaker

Maurizio Marinelli is Professor of China and Global Prosperity at The Bartlett, University College London (UCL)’s Faculty for the Built Environment. His interdisciplinary research lies at the crossroads of Chinese history, culture, and human geography, with a focus on globally significant themes such as the challenges of urbanisation, heritage value, and sustainable development.

At UCL, Professor Marinelli teaches courses on Global China and Urban Studies. He also co-leads the Asia Prosperity Research Hub. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture, International Centre for Cultural Heritage, Tianjin University.

About the chair

Professor Kate Maclean is Professor of Feminist Geography in the Bartlett School of Planning at UCL. Dr Maclean joined UCL in August 2022, having held lectureships in geography at King’s College London and Birkbeck, where she was also Director of BiGS - Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality, and a Chair in Development Geography at Northumbria University.