Berwick Street Market legend Stephen ‘Gazza’ Fletcher

MARKET traders said a fond farewell to one of their own this week, “Gazza” the legend of Berwick Street, who has died aged 65.

Stephen Fletcher, who had tattoos all over his head and body and was nicknamed after the former Spurs playmaker Paul Gascoigne, supported the traders in Soho for decades.

Compared this week to “King Henry VIII”, he could often be found eating huge meals in the early hours at St Bruno’s café or hanging out in the market shed.

Berwick Market Traders Association chairman Robin Smith, who runs the Soho Dairy stall, told Extra how he felt like he had landed on a different planet after meeting “huge” Gazza for the first time. He said: “He would lean across our counter and say things like ‘you sell cheese sir’ while munching pies and grinning. He should have been terrifying, but he was a kid playing with a puppy.

“He more or less lived on the market, pulling barrows, eating at St Bruno’s, and hanging out in the shed. I remember a power cut one evening during the Kemp House development, meaning the shed shutter couldn’t be closed. He just pulled out an old plastic chair and sat in the doorway, he was still there in the morning.

“Rumour was that every bone in his body had been broken and he walked like that was true. But I heard him tell an officer that he’d been kicked by a police horse. He had a story for everyone.”

Mr Smith compared Gazza to Henry VIII in terms of “the way he looked, the way he ate, the way he walked”, but added: “Henry VIII would have been hunting hare on Berwick Street 500 years ago rather than feasting in Bruno’s.”

He said traders had recently got together to sing for him in a happy birthday video after he became unwell.

“That crowd are the backbone of the market, amazing people who support each other, go the extra mile for each other, and make Berwick Street Market what it is: family.”

Stephen Fletcher was involved in the campaign to save the 300-year-old market after Westminster City Council moved to outsource it into private ownership. He was featured on the Extra front page back in 2016.

Traders at the Quality Fruits stall, run by Jimmy and Gary, said: “He was one of Berwick Street’s finest. Gone but never forgotten… from all the boys from Quality Fruits.”

He was described as a current affairs expert and also a “gossip merchant” about everything going down in Soho and on the market.”

Another trader added: “He could be any type of guy. He loved his football, a fan of all football. He loved Wayne Rooney too. Gazza just turned up and he just fitted in.

“He got the name Gazza as it was around the time Paul Gascoigne was all over football playing for England and Tottenham, he dyed his hair blond and had a few England shirts with Gazza on.

“He tried the Ronaldo look, too, but it didn’t work.”