John Mackie: fruit and veg shop owner

Everyone has a story. Here John Mackie talks about growing up in Islington, early starts and how he became a professional footballer. Plus, insight into his day-to-day life running a fabulous greengrocer, Christmas tree and flower shop, White Brothers Fruit & Veg, on Blackstock Road, N4. Interview by Nicola Baird

Growing up in the 1980s John Mackie spent endless hours kicking a football around with his mates at Highbury Quadrant, where he lived with his mum and younger brother. His dedication paid off as he went on to become a professional footballer for clubs including Reading (1999-2004), Leyton Orient (2004-2007) and Brentford (2007-2008). As his footie career was just before the days of players on mega wages, you’ll now often find him at his fruit, veg and flower shop on Blackstock Road rather than enjoying a beach-based retirement.

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“I started playing football at the flats on the playground near Birchmore Hall,” says John Mackie, 48 over coffee in Blackstock Kitchen simultaneously swapping quips with café owner Rohan and a couple of regulars. “I’d kick around with loads of mates, David (childhood friend and staff member) was one of them. It was just a cage with goals painted on the walls. I think it’s pretty similar now.”

Born in Barts, John’s first home was Catherall Road, N5. “I lived with my mum and my brother who is three years younger. Now she’s 70 she’s moved out of Highbury Quadrant to be near my brother in Cheltenham,” he says.

“I always played sport and football at school and really loved Highbury Quadrant and Highbury Grove schools. I was captain of the school team and never had trouble at school. It was there, like at most schools, but I think it got worse after us. It was all boys then,” he says asking Islington Faces a couple of questions about the kids at Highbury Grove now.

“I played club with David’s dad’s team from under 9s all the way through to under 15, having trials at 14 and 15 with Arsenal for a little while, then West Ham for a little while, then that was it. Until 16 I thought that would be the route I’d go into. But because I’d not got a yes, or scholarship, or professional contract, that’s when I started working. I didn’t play football for a living till later on, not til I was 23,” says John who played central defender.

That big break was in 1999 when manager Alan Pardew signed John for Reading, then a second division club.

If you’re not a big football fan you might not realise just how early kids are picked for super stardom – to make the Premier League they are usually signed to a club as teenager. John explains this means hopeful young footballers need buckets of resilience.

“You have to cope with a lot of rejection and pressure from yourself. Mum gave me no pressure. She said ,‘just do what you’ve got to do’. She hardly came to my games, and I preferred it that way. Kids who did have parents there always felt more pressure to perform. So for me there was no outside pressure – the only pressure was that I wanted to be a professional, and then it’s hard when you get rejections. A lot of kids would just give up. Plenty of my friends who were good, just as good, just couldn’t be bothered, or couldn’t take it. I had that determination that I would make it somehow, and finally I did, about seven years later. To turn professional at 23, that was very old in football terms. Not many turn professional after 18 or19.”

So where did John get that grit from? Listening to his life story it must surely have been helped by his determination to keep moving and earn a bit of pocket money.

“As kids my pal (he’s sadly dead now) and I had a milk round. We’d walk from Highbury Quadrant to Haringey, where Sainsbury’s is, to the milk depot. We walked at stupid o’clock on a Saturday morning to do the milk round with the driver. I was about 10 or 11 – imagine doing it now? My mum would have been nicked for letting us wander the streets! We just wanted to earn some money – kids need chocolate, sweets, drinks, rubbish really.”  The pair were also keen on the Arsenal Fish Bar at the top of Blackstock Road, calling it, “a big part of everyone’s childhood.”

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Places John Mackie likes in Islington

1. I live in Potters Bar now so don’t really go anywhere in Islington except the shop – White Bros fruit and veg on 150 Blackstock Road, and also the cafe Blackstock Kitchen, 136 Blackstock Road. I’ll have a cortado coffee with sugar and maybe a nice soup – there’s been some good pumpkin soup this week. Whatever’s cheap!
2. I like delivering to Little Angels Nursery, 217 Blackstock Road, 12 Pins pub, on 263 Seven Sisters Road, and Franks Canteen, 86 Highbury Park. They’re all friendly.
3. The pubs we used to go to? The White House opposite Clissold Park has gone now (it’s where Teato’s was and that’s also closed), and the Robinson Crusoe (now Clissold Park Tavern).
4. I grew up on Highbury Quadrant supporting Arsenal. I’ve been to one game in the Emirates, about ‘07. It’s hard to get tickets, but I’d rather watch indoors.
5. When buying at the market you’ve just got to get it right, but I don’t all the time. So, I drop fruit and veg at the Finsbury Park soup kitchen at St John’s with Alice (the vicar) on Queen’s Drive. I go twice a week, on Tuesday and Sunday. When I drop it off on Sunday it’s packed. They make a lot of meals and do a good job. It always smells nice in there.

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Q: How did you get into the fruit and veg trade?
“At secondary school when I was 15 we had to do two weeks work experience, I played for Islington schools and one of the part-time PE teachers at Highbury Grove had a fruit and veg stall in Queen’s Crescent market in Kentish Town. I was meant to be doing painting and decorating, but that fell through. So, this teacher, Les Randell, said come and help me on the stall for two weeks, and that was the start of it. Then I carried on working for him on a Saturday til I left school, and then worked with him full time, riding a mountain bike to Kentish Town. Back then we were open every day except Friday, but the actual market was Thursday and Saturday and was packed stall wise. It was an old school, English market with plenty of shouting and banter going on. I worked there about a year and then it sort of declined. As I left it was getting very quiet in the week, and I wasn’t enjoying it as much. That’s when I asked Nick if there was any work at White Brothers, as it was on my doorstep. When I started for Nick, I was probably about 16 and a half.

“It’s good for teenagers to work shops and market stalls. It gives them some social skills. When Quinn (young summer staff member) first started he was like a mouse, by the time he finished he couldn’t shut up! And it helps with your maths: back in the day the tills in the shop never worked, so you had to do it in your head. And at the market you had to do maths in your head.”

Q What are your seasonal highlights at the shop?
“The summer fruit season, when the English cherries start. I also love the xmas trees when they first start, but within a week I get sick of lugging them about. It’s hard work for a month, but most of the time it’s worth it. I go for a six foot tree. I put it up at home and then step away to let Jane (John’s wife and the power behind the flowers sold in the shop) decorate it.”

Q: When’s your day start?
“I’m up at 3am. I leave the house then drive to Spitalfields Market at Leyton, next to Hackney Marshes, to do the buying for the day. I’ll leave the market by half 5. Then back to the shop and start setting up at 6am. That’s only the start of it, the shop doesn’t shut til 6pm.

“It’s the worst job for being social. In the week you can’t socialise or have a drink and because I’m up so early booze would still be in the system.”

Changes to Blackstock Road
Brothers Tim and Nick White began selling fruit and veg on stalls on the junction of Chatterton Road and Blackstock Road in 1979. In 1981 they acquired 150 Blackstock Road. John joined them at 16, then left at 23 for 10 years to work as a professional footballer. In 2013 he returned and took over the shop.

As the whitebrothersgreengrocers.co.uk website says, John introduced more products for shoppers including oils, nuts and seeds. More recently his wife Jane has expanded the range of flowers. “This wasn’t a big part of the shop growing up, it was just a sideline. Since she’s bought into it, it’s another level, flowers are a big part of the shop now not just for Valentines, Mother’s Day and bedding plant season. We also have loads of indoor plants as there are so many new flats around here at Arsenal.

“There’s not a lot of footfall on Blackstock Road. Our customers are just local regulars, though at the weekend we might get some passers by buying flowers,” says John adding that “Jeremy Corbyn has been in once or twice, not to buy anything mind!

“When I first stated in the shop, we had Moles the Baker on the corner where the carpet shop is now (Sultan Carpets, 146 Blackstock Road), and a butcher where we now have Junior who runs the car audio place (Finsbury Car Audio, 152 Blackstock Road). There was Dave the butchers across the road (that’s David Mayers of Highbury Butchers at 183 Blackstock Road – now Nourished Communities – who retired around 2013). https://www.islingtonfacesblog.com/2012/10/05/david-mayers-butcher/

Blackstock Kitchen, 136 Blackstock Road, used to be a sandwich bar. Further up was the Arsenal Fish Bar, that was a big part of everyone’s childhood.  For me there’s too many coffee shops round here. To open up a coffee shop next to another you’ve got to be a little bit selfish, so that’s a problem in people’s personalities. People have an idea in their head about a business and don’t think what’s there already.

Q Is football still part of your life?
“I don’t understand people who retire and do nothing. I’ve always got to do something active. I could never work in an office, sitting down. I need to keep moving. I join in kickarounds with my grandson. When I do coaching, over 50s are still playing, but there’s always a chance of getting injured and as I’m self-employed no one else is going to the market for me if I end up with a dodgy knee – anyway that’s always been my excuse,” says John.

Summing up
Islington Faces is often found in White Brothers greengrocers. It’s always got a great choice of loose produce, and when John’s old friend David is on the tills there’s disco to liven up shopping for fruit and veg. But next time you pick out a pumpkin, aubergine or bunch or coriander spare a thought for John who is up at 3am every morning in order to get the best market produce for us all.

Find out more
Try shopping for seasonal fruit, veg, flowers, store cupboard staples/treats (olive oil, nuts etc) and also Christmas trees (from late November) at White Brothers, 150 Blackstock Road, N4 2DY https://www.whitebrothersgreengrocers.co.uk/

Insta: Instagram.com/white_brothers_greengrocers

Insta: Instagram.com/flowersbyjanemackie

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola