BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Organizers of a decades-old annual happening considered by many in Chelsea to signal the start of autumn have announced that the London Terrace Tenants Association Street Fair scheduled for September 21 has been cancelled—and the event itself has come to an end.

A rain or shine affair cancelled only twice before (2001 & 2020 due to, respectively, 9/11 & COVID), the news comes just weeks shy of what would have been the 34th year that the 400 block of West 24th Street was closed to vehicular traffic on a Saturday in late September. As per the necessary City permits, the tree-lined stretch between Ninth and 10th Aves. was transformed, 10am to 5pm, into the Brigadoon of bric-a-brac, with all manner of merchandise priced to move by vendors from the sprawling, 1930-built, 1,000-unit London Terrace co-op.

At tables placed all the way down both sides of the street, you’d find art, jewelry, household goods, home furnishings, vinyl records, CDs, clothing, and ephemera culled from the eclectic personal collections of longtime London Terrace residents. What started out as a yearly opportunity for those residents and nearby neighbors to clean out their closets and sell stuff to each other quickly attracted the attention—and repeat attendance—of looky-loos and bargain hunters alike. In the end, it was the high price of multiple tasks and minimal staff that put the kibosh on what was hailed as “the best little Street Fair in Manhattan.”

In an August 4, 2024 “Fairwell” email sent by the London Terrace Tenants Association (LTTA) and addressed to “Friends, Neighbors, Vendors, and Shoppers,” LTTA President Inge Ivchenko noted, “Every year at the end of September, West 24th Street closed down & perked up… It was no typical street fair. It was a real neighborhood happening. It was where you were bound to find something grand or just fun, catch up with neighbors, and interact with our local elected officials and their staff.”

The event managed to retain its character over the years—but for those working behind the scenes, noted Ivchenko, “We have gone through some changes. We got older and had to hire someone to run it for us. We still did a lot of volunteer work, but then that Fair Manager left us.” That was a decade ago, at which point Ivchenko took over management duties “in a bid to save it.” Although grateful for the years during which she “enjoyed building friendships and meeting the most wonderful people,” a lack of the “many volunteers” necessary to create a successful Street Fair made the prospect of continuing “just not feasible.”

Besides the Fair Manager’s formidable To-Do List (multiple communications with each vendor is a months-long task in and of itself), other factors weighed heavily in the decision to shut down. “Most of the residents now use Building-Link to sell to each other within the building,” noted Ivchenko in her email, adding, “Of the 100 or more vendors, less than 15 live on the block. The cost of doing business has increased and the City kept imposing more regulations and taking a higher cut of the proceeds.”

Being squeezed by NYC practically to the point of insolvency is nothing new for the Street Fair. An October 9, 2015 article written by Kathryn Thomas and published on midtowngazette.com (click here to read it) noted the Fair “has survived more than a decade of restrictions and rule changes to the city’s street fair guidelines,” including “mandatory city fees and limited hours of operation.” Elsewhere in the article, Andy Humm (LTTA President at the time and currently its treasurer) remarked, “The burden on us is considerable and we have almost had to shut down… We only make a few thousand dollars on this and the city just keeps making it harder and harder.”

Despite the fact that 2015’s considerable burden continued unabated—and was joined by other complications along the way—Ivchenko and a handful of other LTTA members managed to make the Street Fair an annual happening all the way through its 2023 iteration. (After a decade of sunny skies, last year’s event was postponed when the forecast called for downpours, only to take place one week later on a similarly soggy day.)

Come rain or shine, “We loved the fact that we were helping vendors by providing a safe place to sell,” read Ivchenko’s August 4 email. Days later, during a phone interview, Ivchenko recalled with pride the focus and tone maintained by the Street Fair over the years. That was achieved, she said, by “keeping out commercial vendors; the tube socks, the sausage and pepper sandwiches, the compressors and all of the noise that comes with that.” The absence of things better suited to a food festival—and keeping the event at just one crosstown block in length—created an atmosphere just as conducive to schmoozing as shopping.

Asked what, if anything, might take the place of the Street Fair, Ivchenko noted the London Terrace Tenants Association “still has our spring social. And we used to, years ago, have an outdoor pet parade. Maybe we’ll bring that back. At some point, we’ll start putting our thinking caps on and come up with something more resident-centric.”

As for the Street Fair, Ivchenko in her email noted with much pride how it was “everything that you might expect from a neighborhood garage or tag sale. . .What we can say is this President and the board are sad to see it go, but we gave it our best and we had a good long run!”

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

London Terrace Tenants Association Street Fair photos from the Chelsea Community News archives

FROM 2023 (click here to access the article; all photos by @directorchick)

FROM 2021 (click here to access the article; photos courtesy of LTTA unless otherwise noted)

FROM 2019 (click here to access the article; photos courtesy of LTTA unless otherwise noted)

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