My memories of Stabroek Market

Apr 23, 2024 Letters

Dear Editor,

I can still remember my days at the Stabroek Market. My grandfather who was known as Samaroo or uncle Samaroo had his business in that market where my mother also had a free standing wooden stall on the wharf. Throughout my school holidays and on Saturdays, it was compulsory that I go to the market to help out at the business which was dealing mainly with fruits and ground provision.

My grandfather was mainly a wholesaler who sold to vendors of all the markets around Georgetown and also New Amsterdam and McKenzie now Linden. We were the supplier of fruits and vegetables to the Government House on Main Street. I have a large framed picture on a wall at my house with my mother facing the then Governor Sir Ralph Grey, mayor Sir Lionel Luckhoo and other delegates. They paid a visit to have a firsthand look at the produce that was supplied to the Government House. Some of our other customers included Correia, Sue-A-Quan and the famous Tang’s Bakery.

I hated when I had to go to the market on Sundays but I had no choice. That was when we were receiving pineapples and other fruits and vegetables at the southern end of the wharf. It came by launch. On the northern end came a sloop filled with watermelon. The wharf was well maintained with any defective floor board or other structural defects being promptly repaired. Cleanliness of the market took priority with regular sweeping of the floors several times during the day. The entire market floors were washed on the weekend starting with the wharf on Saturday afternoon and then the inner market on Sunday when it was closed for business. I am sure this exercise no longer exists.

On my last visit to Guyana in 2009, I visited the market and saw the deterioration inside and outside most of all, a nonfunctional clock which people relied on back in the old days to know the time. It is of my belief that this market which I knew from my boyhood days went downhill under Hamilton Green’s era and became worse under the last mayor whom I think was unfit for that position. It was sad to see the crumbling Stabroek Market. This was because of lack of maintenance. My mother and grandfather must be turning in their graves.

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