The City Corporation announced on December 23 2024 that they and the Smithfield traders have agreed on a plan to move the market to a new location “within the M25” when the site closes. See more at the end under updates.
The decision yesterday by the City Corporation to close Smithfield meat market within a few years gained a lot of media coverage, with some brief mentions of mixed-use culture and commercial development of the buildings future. Below I’ve pulled together what we know about those developments.
Jonathan Prynn, Standard Business Editor, wrote: “So if the market is to leave, what does that mean for the splendid 1860s Sir Horace Jones designed temples of ironwork left behind? One thing is for sure. As Grade II listed buildings, they cannot be demolished to make way for yet another City office block. We do not know what will happen to the site, although the corporation published some emerging thinking in 2020 that provides some clues. Those “first concept designs” envisage “an inclusive place for all Londoners” with “education and training at its heart, alongside a mixture of new cultural and entertainment spaces.”
“One suggestion is that a hall where white coated bummarees — as porters are known at Smithfield — still lug around prime cuts of meat could one day house a sound-proofed multi-media entertainment space for local performances and cultural acts”.
- City Corporation news release
- ‘It’s another London tradition that will go’ – BBC News
- London’s 900-year-old Smithfield meat market to close as Dagenham move abandoned – The Standard
- London must not make the same mistake as Paris, now that Smithfield market is closing – The Standard
- The history of Smithfield Market – London Museum
- Smithfield Market to turn lights out on a millennium of history – London on the Ground
There’s now a Save Smithfield Market petition on Change.org, and closure depends on the successful passage of a private bill through Parliament. However, traders are being offered a substantial compensation package, so it seems prudent to enquire into what may happen to market buildings if the closure goes ahead. So far the only public information is the concept designs released in 2020. They feature on the Wholesale Markets website developed to report on the previously planned move of Smithfield and Billingsgate Markets to Dagenham, now abandoned. There is also a video that provides an inspiring walk-through of how the market buildings might be re-used.
The video doesn’t play as an embed – suggest click “Watch on Youtube”
Links on the wholesale markets website:
- Bringing London’s wholesale markets together at Dagenham Dock
- Reimagining Smithfield Market with a report on public engagement and pages on design principles, possible interventions, uses, and public realm.
- News release with new concept designs December 17 2020
The concept designs are also available on the website of architects Studio Egret West, with illustrations.
Grand Avenue cut through
Basement Hall
Rotunda – currently a car park
The new development will create a hugely important attraction next to the new London Museum – due to open in 2026. Here’s a look at how that is developing. The issue will be the balance between cultural, educational and commercial uses. Will it be another Covent Garden? There’s scope to do a lot more.
Updates
The Standard Business Editor Jonathan Prynn writes that London must not make the same mistake as Paris, now that Smithfield market is closing, warning the City against the sort of soulless development that blighted Les Halles when that market closed. He notes the 2020 concept designs for re-use of the market buildings that envisage “an inclusive place for all Londoners” with “education and training at its heart, alongside a mixture of new cultural and entertainment spaces.” He adds:
“While there is no suggestion that the corporation would follow Paris’s dismal example, perhaps there is a lesson to learn.
“Is there a third way, an option that secures some form of viable market presence in central London, maybe on a reduced scale? The meat market is devoid of activity during the day, the halls standing empty and shuttered while the City throbs around it. Is there not scope for animating the area by day through the creation of retail units, butchers even, that could serve the hordes of visitors expected next door at the new London Museum and the other attractions of the corporation’s culture mile, as well as the thousands of local office workers? Part of London’s enormous strength is the way it blends history with modernity in a way that monumental Paris has not and upstart New York cannot. Anyway there is still much to play for. The market cannot be closed until a private bill passes all its parliamentary stages, a process that could take three years. As with any piece of legislation it will require royal assent.
“And who knows, perhaps the King, a well known supporter of tradition and artisan food businesses, will refuse to play ball and withhold the legal coup de grace to a 1,000-year-old slice of London life”.
Petition
The BBC reports that an online petition on Change.org, calling for the market to be saved, has more than 15,000 signatures on December 4 2024. The petition’s creator said Smithfield Market was an “irreplaceable part of the city’s cultural and economic fabric”.
“We call on the City of London Corporation to:
“Reverse the decision to close Smithfield Market:
“Engage with the community, traders, and heritage organizations to explore viable options that safeguard the market’s operations while respecting its historical significance.
“Commit to investment in the restoration and modernisation of Smithfield Market to ensure it remains a vibrant, functional, and accessible space for generations to come.
“Smithfield Market is more than a place of trade; it is a living, breathing part of London’s soul. Its closure would represent an irreversible loss, not only for our city but for the cultural and historical legacy of the nation and countless families who depend on it”.
Call for Mayor of London to fight closures
The London Assembly has called for the Mayor of London to fight the planned closure of Billingsgate and Smithfield Markets.
In a letter published by the Planning and Regeneration Committee on December 9 2024, the Mayor was warned that businesses who use the Markets, and the associated social, cultural and economic benefits they bring to the capital, could be permanently lost. The Committee recommends:
- If the decision is not reversed, the Mayor should work with partners across London and urgently seek suitable alternative locations for these two iconic London markets.
- The Mayor of London should urgently seek a meeting with the Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation, Chris Hayward, and use it to call for the Corporation to reconsider and reverse this decision.
City Corporation and Smithfield traders plan a New Smithfield
The City Corporation announced on December 23 2024 that they and the Smithfield traders have agreed on a plan to move the market to a new location “within the M25” when the site closes.
The agreement comes after concerns that the historic Smithfield meat market and Billingsgate fish market would shut after the City of London Corporation voted to withdraw support for them.
The trader and City authorities have now agreed to find a “New Smithfield” market.
On Monday the Corporation and the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association (SMTA) issued a joint statement pledging to create a new facility allowing the meat traders “to expand and modernise our businesses, as well as support the meat traders of the future”.
The statement said “the creation of a ‘New Smithfield’ will also ensure that the meat which passes through the current market site will continue to serve London and the South East”.
It said: “The timing of the construction of the new facility dovetails with the SMTA’s move from Smithfield in 2028/9, and there will therefore be minimal disruption to our supply chains during the transition period.
“For our part, the City Corporation will continue to work proactively with the SMTA to support a smooth transition.”
The SMTA said 70% of its members intend to move to the new facility and “any businesses who do not wish to re-locate will transfer their trade to other Smithfield traders”.
Monica Montserrat Degan and Tom Butler report that their Sensory Smithfield project has documented how the juxtaposition of past, present and future rhythms and experiences, underpinned by diverse social groups across a 24-hour cycle, creates Smithfield’s idiosyncratic “sensescape” – for many a key part of the inner city’s identity. This will be lost.
“From 10pm onwards, enormous lorries arrive, jamming up the narrow streets. Fervent activity begins, as rows of carcasses are transported into the market, just as revellers start queueing to enter Fabric nightclub.
“By 2am, the market is in full swing. Sunrise sees besuited traders rushing to their offices while market workers in bloodstained aprons hose down pavements. The first tourists arrive at midday to visit nearby Charterhouse or St Bartholomew the Great, London’s oldest parish church. By 6pm the streets are filled again with office workers gathered outside pubs, pints in hand”.
Adding:
“What lies ahead for Smithfield in the latest phase of its 2,000-year history should matter to all Londoners. This area has the potential to retain its edge as it combines with new cultural activities to create a rich and inclusive landscape – and an emergent sense of place that respects the past but is open to ongoing change.
“Cities need more than just sanitised, commodified and static zones that act as Instagram backdrops. Smithfield without its market might soon be a reality, but hopefully London’s newest cultural quarter will remain a “smooth field” that is anything but”.
Dave Hill reports that the markets bill which has to go through Parliament in order to close the markets is likely to face opposition.