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Fruit and vegetable seller Peter Ramsay, who ran a stall at the renowned Whitecross Street market in Finsbury for more than 40 years, has retired.

Mr Ramsay, who manned the only remaining fresh fruit and veg stall in the market, where there were once 23, decided to quit just before Christmas.

Speaking from his Edgware home, he told the Tribune it had not been an easy decision. “I’m not getting any younger,” the grandfather-of-four said. “Now I get some time to spend with my wife and my family. The danger is that you leave it too late [to retire].”

He had a hip replacement last year and, faced with the cost of renewing his public liability insurance, the rental for his pitch and parking in the congestion zone, combined with the long hours, he decided it was time to call it a day.

“It’s been a good long run and I enjoyed it,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of loyal customers over the years. I’ve had four generations of families at the market. I’ve been invited to my fair share of weddings, christenings and funerals.

“I loved the banter with the customers, working-class people and also well-to-do customers from the Barbican. That was always a big part of it for me, and I do miss it every day.”

Whitecross Street became dominated by hot-food stalls catering for the area’s growing number of professionals around 10 years ago, after the traditional street market dwindled due to competition from supermarkets and discount clothing stores.

“The market was becoming very depleted,” Mr Ramsay said. “We were down to about four stalls because the big firms like Primark were coming on stream, and the fashion and shoe stalls went.

“Before, you could get everything there – cutlery, china, shoes, anoraks, CDs, groceries. The fruit and veg stalls went into decline before, with the advent of supermarkets.”

But investment as part of the EC1 New Deal, with funding from the Town Hall, City of London and English Heritage, paved the way for an influx of new stalls selling hot dishes from all over the world.

Mr Ramsay said: “With the advent of the hot-food stalls a lot of people said it’s no longer a proper market but from my point of view if that had not come into fruition I would have been out of business 10, 12 years ago. It was a saving grace for us.”

He used to get up every morning at 3.30am, and drive his truck to Spitalfields wholesale market to pick up fresh produce, before going on to the market.

“You need to be there early to get the best produce, and the reason that we survived for so long was that we managed to get good-quality stuff at a reasonable price,” he said.

These days, the area is “becoming like Hong Kong”, the 68-year-old added. “It’s just building, building, building, everywhere you look.”

A new trader is now selling fruit and vegetables in Mr Ramsay’s old place halfway up Whitecross Street, at the junction with Roscoe Street.