Unfortunately, a reader commented last week that he went looking for the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market and didn't find anything:
I tried to go to the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market last weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) but was totally unable to find it. I walked 39th street from 8th Ave to 11th ave but saw nothing that even began to resemble a flea market. Any ideas what was up? John Doe
THE John Doe! We apologize, and it seems some tectonic shifts are happening in the Flea Market world.
While we think Hell's Kitchen is still on, we hear that Chelsea has closed. We have found NO news on the web that it closed, but everyone we have spoken to says it's KAPUT. What happened? Anyone got the scoop? MGR
i also went looking for the hell's kitchen flea market about 2 weeks ago on a sunday. walked down, saw a small empty lot, a parking lot i think nothing else. i had never been before so i am not sure where it should have been. no news about the chelsea flea market. . .is it the annex you are speaking of? of the indoor one across the street?
well, it's not the big chelsea market, but on the corner of 17th and 6th avenue (SW) there's a mini flea market of sorts which is nice to visit after having run the Angel Street and Housing Works thrift shop gauntlet. excellent tool selection and the requisite piles of CDs and old jean jackets. not much furniture.
The 26th Street Flea Market is rumored to be closing at the end of this month. Another high-rise is slated to be built there {{{ sigh }}}
Chelsea is closing at the end of the month? Egad. I was going to say, it's definitely not closed yet, because I was just there (26th) last weekend, scoping stuff out and planning to return this weekend. I can't believe the great market will be yet another casualty of luxury condos. That is what this city needs more and more of. Oh, and extra stadiums in every borough.
KG, can you please tell us what your source is? By Chelsea flea market do you mean 1) the dollar lot; 2) the garage; and 3) the lot adjacent to the church on 26th Street?
Is it safe to assume the garage will stay open?
What I've never understood is why we can't just close off 6th Avenue between say, 23rd and 32nd streets on weekends (the way they constantly do all over the city for those lousy carbon-copy street fairs selling crummy sheets and cheap sunglasses, and hold the flea market in the street. Isn't this what goes on in London, Rome and Madrid? The flea market is IN the street.
Hey I keep telling people to read curbed.com which is a great complimentary site to AT.
I guess Lock wasn't lolling around on the sofa this time.
www.curbed.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=flea
One of those links goes here
http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0524,lalli2,64874,15.html
I called the Hell's Kitchen flea market # and got a voice mail recording but did not leave a message. Perhaps someone else who want's to know the answer more than I do (that sounds facetious but I don't mean it that way) could leave a message to be called back.
BTW, here's an alternative way to search sites.
Go to google and type the search terms followed by colon, no space, www.whatever_the_site_is_called.com and google will search only that site for you which is useful if that site does not have its own search tool.
Well, my source is that I've spoken to the developer. I have a loft overlooking the 26th Street Flea Market (I'm talking about the market on 6th Ave between 25th and 26th, west side of street) and am on the Board of my building. Several months ago, surveyors showed up; then a few months ago, boring trucks spent a week taking earth samples. We did some investigation and found that developer's name and indeed, they are planning a building there. He's been rather unclear about exactly when it's going to start but a guy from the excavating company paid a visit to view our basement and told our super that they were going to be breaking ground August 15. Again, nothing is for sure, but it's going to definitely happen.
>(I'm talking about the market on 6th Ave between
> 25th and 26th, west side of street)
Whoops! make that the *east* side of 6th Ave.
Well why did you not post that then instead of your first "rumored" post?
I could have saved myself the trouble ;p
Yet another step in the slow death march of this once great City. RIP, Chelsea Flea Market.
The Hell's Kitchen Flea Market went from a great idea to a fizzle. It used to be chock full of vendors but when it IS open lately, it's a handleful at best. So maybe they just decided it wasn't worth it. I haven't seen it for a while.
Hell's Kitchen Flea Market hung on by its fingernails through July 2005 when the relocated sellers from the Chelsea flea market gave it a major shot in the arm. Like the first line of New York Magazine's 2006 feature on "SoHell" said, "The flea market has settled in for good."