Olivia Potts has narrated this article for you to listen to.
Smithfield has been the beating heart of London’s meat industry for more than 800 years. Located at the middle point of Farringdon, Barbican and St Paul’s, the capital’s only remaining wholesale meat market has survived bombings and fire, public criticism and a waning butchery industry; it has been pulled down and rebuilt, and adapted to changing times. In continuous operation since medieval times, to call it an institution is an understatement. But this week it was announced that it will be forced to close its shutters for the final time.
The City of London Corporation was granted the right to run Smithfield meat market by Edward III in 1327. Over the years, opinions on it have differed: in 1726, Daniel Defoe called the meat market ‘without question, the greatest in the world’. By Victorian times, the market had its critics; in 1843, Thomas Maslen described Smithfield as ‘that disgusting place’ where one would find ‘cruelty, filth, effluvia, pestilence, impiety, horrid language, danger, disgusting and shuddering sights, and every obnoxious item that can be imagined’. There were calls for it to move to outside the City walls, with poor hygiene and animal welfare the main criticisms.
Smithfield as we know it was rebuilt during the Victorian period, equipping it for the more modern nature of trade. The Grade II-listed covered market buildings were designed by architect Horace Jones (who also designed Billingsgate fish market) and opened in 1868. The market today is its own microcosm, trading in the twilight hours to supply meat to butchers and restaurants, with its own slang and enforcement officers.
A plan has been in place for some time for Billingsgate fish market and Smithfield meat market to relocate to a purpose-built site in Dagenham, east London. But this week the Court of Common Council, the decision-making body for the Corporation, voted to absolve themselves of the running of the sites and called time on the move, citing inflation and rising construction costs. In 2028, the market will be closed for good. The process for doing so is not straightforward: the Corporation’s responsibility for the sites is enshrined in the Metropolitan Meat and Poultry Market Act 1860, so the council will need to bring a private bill before parliament to release themselves from the running of the market. Lawyers have raised questions about the legality of the vote as no study has been produced into the importance of the markets to London’s food supply and security. There have also been concerns over the use of public funds to foot the compensation bill for traders – reportedly around £300 million.
The buildings will be preserved, but what about the traders? They find themselves displaced at a time when the independent meat and butchery trade is already struggling. You could argue that the closure will simply hasten an inevitable demise, that Smithfield would eventually have gone the way of all flesh. But in the centre of London, where much of the trade is supplying inner-city butchery shops and restaurants, and the demand for high-end butchery is still high, it’s hard not to see the loss of this market as a tragedy for a skilled and historic craft.
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