This project addresses an issue that can be viewed currently taking place in cities around the world: the wholesale and generic renewal of urban markets into modernised sites of commerce. Many urban markets are altering significantly as a result of economic stresses, with some being forced to close altogether. Others have been transformed and renovated into new shopping colonnades and fastfood outlets, usually very different from their traditional incarnations. These circumstances can be seen particularly clearly in cities in Portugal today. Lisbon’s Mercado de Arroios, Porto’s Mercado do Bolhão and Funchal’s Mercado dos Lavradores have recently been modified dramatically in ways that detach them from their former communities. Mise-en-scène do Mercado details the specificities of these locations ahead of their redevelopment. In the same way that the nineteenth-century topographic photographers collated a body of photographic imagery that captured the narratives of their cities before they were completely reshaped, this video essay explores the characteristics at the heart of these markets, through the experiences and interactions of individuals on the ground.