Picture source: Shops Book Brighton 1900-1930 by the late Neil Griffiths. Click for QueenSpark Books site.
The removal of the Open Market from the central rose-walk of the Level to the cobbled front gardens of the houses in Marshall's Row permitted the Council to provide more recreational facilities on the Level, but having mobile barrows in front of your house was not really a very tidy arrangment unless you were one of the traders.
It is to be remembered that Napoleon Bonaparte called the English "a nation of shopkeepers". Although the metal used in the battle of Waterloo in 1815, which secured Napoleon's abdication after a final defeat, probably came from the ironworks of Northern England, there was some truth in the statement that many of the residents in service industry towns like Brighton in Southern England, were "traders and shopkeepers".
Data from a 1920 Brighton street directory (this was 6 years before the market moved to Marshall's Row) confirms that of the 24 residents in Marshall's Row, David Cohen at number 1 was a cabinet maker. William Curtis at number 2 was a gilder. I don't know about John Menzies at number 5, though his descendants may have been involved in selling newspapers. To be honest, a far greater ratio of resident / trades people appear in the index of residents living in Upper Gardner Street, where Harry Cowley kept order. The majority of residents in Marshall's Row would have had to put up with the barrow boys in the frontages of their houses.
There would come a time when the traders would want a dedicated market, but the unemployment of the 1920s and 1930s and the call-up for World War II [1939-1945] delayed the market's development.
The demolition of the houses on Marshall's Row in 1938 created more space for the market, but the traders had to wait until 7th January 1960 until the present permanent retail market with 42 stalls was opened by the Duke of Norfolk.
There is now access for the traders' vehicles from Francis Street. Shoppers can enter the market either through the west gate on the paved part of Marshall's Row leading from London Road or from the east gate in Ditchling Road opposite the north west corner of the Level.