Curating pop-up street food markets in London

This chapter explores how market organisers as ‘curators’ create street food markets in London. I analyse how their use of cultural and aesthetic knowledge capitalises on wider processes of gentrification. This curatorial work includes a careful design and arrangement of material, affective and sensorial elements, including the selection of food traders, cuisines and atmospheres to appeal to particular audiences. I draw on findings from an ethnography conducted in 2014–2015 at a night market in Lewisham. This case specifically illustrates curators’ decision-making process in the setting up of markets as a relevant practice in the generation of ‘tasted places’ of consumption.