Last Tuesday, Fatima Kamara was sitting in her market stall inside the iconic Ridley Road market, surrounded by piles of linens packed in plastic cases, when an apologetic woman appeared in front of her. “She said, ‘I’m sorry, but I have to do this,’” the soft-spoken 56 year old recalls. In the woman’s hand was a letter from the indoor market’s landlord which said that Kamara, who has run her stall there for about five years, needed to leave by the end of March.
Fatima was not the only one to get a visit that day. Over a dozen market traders inside the market hall have received notices from their tax haven-based corporate landlord that their leases are being ended — what they’re calling a de facto eviction — and are worried about their livelihoods.
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The 13 traders in question all operate out of the indoor section of Ridley Road market, which was purchased by its current landlord in 2016 for £6.5m. It’s a beloved space for locals in this corner of Hackney, and lies next to the outdoor market (a separate entity, which is managed by Hackney council).
“I’m really depressed and worried,” Kamara told the Londoner when we visited on Thursday. “I’ve been here for years and support the local community. I speak to every customer. I just don’t know what to say.”
This is far from the first battle for these traders. Larochette’s first attempt to evict them was in 2018, with the company submitting planning docs that aimed to turn the indoor market into a block of offices and luxury flats. After a spirited campaign that saw huge community protests, mass media coverage and hundreds of complaints written to the local council, Larochette’s plans were rejected.
In 2022, an agreement was supposed to have been reached to safeguard its future. Larochette would refurbish the indoor market, formerly called Ridley Road Shopping Village, which was suffering with leaks, damp and other severe disrepair after years of neglect.
It was meant to take six months and, when done, Hackney council claimed it would take over the lease for the indoor market for the next fifteen years, giving the traders some protection from future evictions. Not only did that refurbishment end up taking three years, rather than six months, but Hackney council never took over the lease of the building as agreed.
Now, less than a year since the traders moved into the renovated building, they’re once again finding their existence under threat.
'They’re punishing the victims'
In the letter sent to the traders on 17 February, lawyers representing landlord Larochette Real Estate Inc claimed that they had no choice but to end the leases due to a Met crackdown on worsening antisocial behaviour in the market. Traders would be forced to leave at the end of March, when their annual leases expired.
The Met police, however, contest this. In an email to local councillor Zoe Garbett, the force called the wording in Larochette’s letter “inaccurate”, and denied that they “requested the closure of the indoor market space or issued a closure order”.
“A Community Protection Warning (CPW) was issued, which is the lowest form of enforcement in an ASB and crime setting and was a joint decision between the council and the police,” the force explained. They added that it was “the continued failure of the building owner [to take] reasonable and necessary measures to address safety concerns” that led to the CPW being issued.
Garbett agrees, telling us that Larochette has “misrepresented the police's position, who have not requested the closure of the building”. She accused the landlord of shirking their responsibilities towards the traders, particularly their promised redevelopment. “I am outraged at this action from Larochette — not only are they proposing to evict traders, again, the way they have communicated this to traders and the public has been totally unacceptable,” she told The Londoner. She called on the council to back the traders and save a central part of the century-old Ridley Road market.
When we reached out to Rainbow Properties, the agent acting for Larochette, a spokesperson contested the Met and Garbett’s position. They claimed they had received two hand-delivered written warnings from the Met, dated 6 February 2026, and threatening “imminent Community Protection Orders as a result of the violence and drug dealing inside the market”.
For traders, who are often the victims of those doing the antisocial behaviour on the market, being forced out felt like salt in the wound. “Do you know how many times I’ve complained about it?” says Asli Uygur, who's been running her clothes store in the indoor market for nearly a decade. “They’re punishing the victims.”
The landlord behind it
But who is behind all this? Larochette is registered in the offshore tax haven of the Virgin Islands, and its listed director is Guy Rafael Ziser. A London real estate developer and landlord, his most visible business is Ziser London, a company founded by Guy’s father, Shmuel Ziser, a former Israeli professional footballer who moved to the UK in the early 1980s. But it’s almost impossible to quantify the exact size and value of Guy Rafael’s London real estate empire. He has some 44 different companies he’s listed as a director of — including Rainbow Properties, which manages Ridley Road market.
A spokesperson for Rainbow told The Londoner that “the building owner would like to stress that the market is to be closed solely for community safety reasons”. They added that they contested the description of the mass non renewal of the traders leases as “evictions” and stressed that there were “no plans to sell the market for redevelopment”.
Hackney council, for their part, told The Londoner the move was temporary to “allow for a full review of security arrangements, operational management and compliance measures to ensure the premises meet the required standards and protect community safety”, though they did not offer a time frame for reopening. They added that they recognised the impact the decision will have on businesses, and that they are “working to provide advice and support where possible”. They did not explain why the council hadn’t taken over the lease of the site, as pledged in 2022.
For many of the traders though, the prospect of having to fight for their survival again has left them despondent. “They’ve done this over and over and over,” Uygur sighs. “It’s taken my patience from me, it’s taken my fight from me.”
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