Smithfield and Billingsgate to close

[Cork All Star]

Saddened to read this news. Does 850 years of history count for nothing? And I very much doubt the flats will be bought by working Londoners:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje050wz22qo.amp

“Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said: ‘This decision represents a positive new chapter for Smithfield and Billingsgate markets in that it empowers traders to build a sustainable future in premises that align with their long-term business goals.'”

Yet another one fluent in management speak rubbish. How is it positive if traders have nowhere to trade from?

Smithfield Market was a great place to visit in the morning. You knew any purchases would be fresh and pristine.

One or two of the local pubs had early morning licences (ostensibly to serve the market porters who had been toiling through the night) long before the era of 24 hour licences.

The Hope offered a cooked breakfast with meat fresh from the market. The Full English washed down with a pint of Young’s Special was the breakfast of kings.

I suppose the market has been in decline for a while but it will be a sad day when it goes.

[sporting sam]

“Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said: ‘This decision represents a positive new chapter for Smithfield and Billingsgate markets in that it empowers traders to build a sustainable future in premises that align with their long-term business goals.’”
As a former employee of a fishmonger, I retired from a career of over 35 years into a job which got me back into the kitchens of hotels where I’d started out as a 14 year old. As the grandson of a brilliant farmer a return to this branch of the catering industry took me full circle back into a fascinating world. I can’t say the fish get a great deal as there’s no sustainable world vision when it comes to fishing. But the dismantling of established markets of hundreds of years creates not a vacuum but a void. To be credited with any intelligence Mr Chris Hayward might like to be a little less economical with the bare facts of where this move will leave the traders and the customers. Only his mother could credit him for any commonsense for such a stupid statement. The only winners here are the fish and that is only in the short term..,.. and of course the money men who will be building Billy Towers.

[Drone]

A shame indeed, moreso because it appears a planned relocation to the Dagenham area has been dropped. At least Covent Garden Market is still going after its relocation in the ’70s to south of the river

[Triptych]

Smithfield..such a historical site opposite Barts hospital and close to where William Wallace was executed,
Why not turn it into a living Museum laid out as it used to be with guided tours around the site reliving the way things used to be in that part of London, even Charles Dickens described the market in Oliver Twist in the 1830’s. There was even a subterranean railway constructed to bring meat to Smithfield (now a car park since 1962) and who knows it could have been used by the bodysnatchers who would supply Barts for medical research.
Such a shame our history cannot be preserved in some way for future generations. ..Jac

Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...

[Richard88]

Does 850 years of history count for nothing?

Not when there’s money to be made. It’s been reported that compensation could be in the order of £300 million so that probably gives us an idea of just how much.

[Author]

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