Everything must go: showtime for Evans as he cuts the clutter

Chris Evans was out entertaining the crowds again yesterday as he prepared to launch his latest venture - a market stall. The multimillionaire former TV mogul has set up shop among the ageing hippies and young goths of Camden Town to sell off his furniture and memorabilia.

Evans, 38, has hired a site underneath railway arches in the Stables Market, to sell a large quantity of possessions that have been kept in storage after a period spent "downsizing" his properties.

Yesterday, perched on a ladder, he painted "Nothing in this shop has a price like life", among other slogans, across the walls as a curious crowd gathered.

His new neighbour Anthony Goodman at Super Natural, a stall selling mushrooms and plant medicines, said: "Sad for him that he has got to sell everything. Maybe he has learnt some spiritual lesson, gone to the top and found there is nothing there."

Two five-foot tall wooden toothbrushes - left over from his hit television programme Don't Forget Your Toothbrush - were among the first items put on show. Other merchandise included two brown leather Chesterfield sofas, an antique china chamber pot and a stuffed owl in a glass cases.

For Evans, it was a return to familiar ground; in the early 1980s he ran a street T-shirt stall. But some of his new neighbours were sceptical that the celebrity could cut it in the increasingly wintry world of the market.

"I do this for a living," said Mark Scamp at M&H Furnishings next door. "If I was worth £50m I would not be standing here in the freezing cold. I would give my stuff to charity."

Others just welcomed the trade that Evans would bring to the small corner of the sprawling market when he opens his stall at 10am this morning. "He seems like a nice guy, down to earth," said Louie Theodosi at Indigo contemporary furnishings.

The sale comes in a period of upheaval for Evans. In the summer, he split from his second wife, the singer and actress Billie Piper, and later sold his £4m Surrey home and his £3.9m Los Angeles house.

His career has hit the doldrums over the past two years. But he is unlikely to go back to selling T-shirts - the sale of Ginger Mediaearned him £75m.