If you find yourself wandering between Tooting and Balham town centres you may stumble across a set of quirky independent shops with a distinctly village-like feel.

There’s an art gallery and a bakery, and even a furniture shop where you can get your favourite pieces upcycled and painted.

They are all on Ritherdon Road – a spot unfamiliar to most South Londoners who tend to flock to its better-known neighbours.

Now shop owners are hoping to change that by launching monthly markets to encourage more people to visit the area.

Andy Muspratt runs the furniture store Quirky Dovetail, and is chair of the Ritherdon Road Traders Association.

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Picture: Darren Pepe

He says he was inspired to trial monthly markets after three shops in the parade suddenly closed in January.

“It gets more difficult every year, you know, rates don’t go down, rents don’t go down, bills go up, and the high street isn’t as popular as it was,” he said.

Shop owners noticed uplifts in sales after their yearly summer and Christmas markets, and decided to host more regular markets on their terraces to give the area a boost.

“We’re doing it because the street needs more retail,” said Andy.

“We’ve got shops that have closed, and we’ve got some shops which aren’t retail, and so we’re trying to create more of a retail hub. Whenever we have done a market the shops are always busier.

“We’re going to get there but we want to just remind people that we’re here and create a buzz for the street,” he said.

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Picture: Darren Pepe

Andy says the owners have had “an incredible response,” to the new markets, set to take place on the last Sunday of March, April and May.

The parade traders hope to have 16 stall-holders on each of the days, and have already got 12 paid and booked for March’s launch.

They will involve local traders and entrepreneurs selling everything from Italian pastries to vintage homeware, non-alcoholic spritz to pottery.

Andy thinks the markets will help to revitalise the high street.

“The whole idea of browsing and finding a treasure. I think there’s a real demand for it,” he said.

“People really respond to them. It’s a day out, people browse and go for a coffee and for lunch. We’re lucky to have the terraces here we can use, so we don’t have to go to the council for a road closure, which is always tricky.”

In the past the owners have applied to the council to shut the road for their summer markets, but they now say it is too expensive.

According to Wandsworth Council’s website, the cost of a road closure order is £ 1,750.60.

Dee Monteleone runs the bakery Dee Light, but as well as baking fresh bread and cakes, she also runs children’s parties.

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Picture: Darren Pepe

She says without these extras she would “probably be closed like everyone else.”

Dee says trade has been “up and down,” and that many shops have had to close because rents and rates are just too expensive.

But she’s not giving up on Ritherdon Road just yet.

“It’s got something really quite special,” she says.

“It’s like a village feel, especially when you sit outside and the sun is shining.”

Neighbour Johny Midnight owns Gallery Midnight, which sells and showcases his paintings.

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Picture: Darren Pepe

He also runs art classes for children as an additional way of making money, and hopes the markets will draw more people into the area.

“The area has a nice strong community feel,” he says, “it’s quite good fun coming together like this with the shops working together, you end up talking to your neighbours.”

However, he is also worried about the decline of high streets such as Ritherdon Road.

“It’s hard work, really really hard work, you have to keep coming up with creative ideas to get people coming into the street,” he said.

“We really need a new money operation.”

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Picture: Darren Pepe

Luckily Ritherdon Road traders say they have been supported by their local councillor Clare Fraser, and MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, and also appear in the council’s specialist independent shops directory.

Cllr Jonathan Cook, cabinet member for economic development, skills and employment notes in the introduction that small businesses like those on Ritherdon Road “make a huge contribution to a community’s identity.”

“Entrepreneurs and small business owners are an integral part of the communities in which they trade – they often live in the community and therefore have the interests of their community at heart. Small businesses play important roles in local activities and initiatives,” he said.