Historic Smithfield market could leave London after 800 years

Smithfield meat market could leave London for the first time in over 800 years
Getty Images

The City’s historic Smithfield meat market could leave London for the first time in more than 800 years under plans to move it to the fringes of the capital.

A former oil refinery site in Thurrock, Essex, is on a shortlist of four locations for a vast, new mega-market which could also house Billingsgate fish market and New Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market. The other three potential sites are at Barking power station in Dagenham, Silvertown near City airport in Docklands, and Fairlop in Redbridge. The City of London Corporation wants to amalgamate the three historic markets in a purpose-built facility to free up land for housing.

The Thurrock proposal from property company ISEC would see the markets move to the Thames Enterprise Park at the former Coryton refinery on the banks of the river — but outside Greater London.

Stephen Lawrence, chief executive of Thames Enterprise Park, said it had made a proposal “in respect of the consolidation and relocation of the City of London markets … However, the City of London’s process of site selection is at an early stage so we do not intend to comment any further at this point.”

Barking and Dagenham council leader Darren Rodwell believes the markets should stay within the boundaries of the capital. “If London lost its iconic markets it would lose some of its soul,” he said. The competition to host the £800 million-a-year markets is likely to be closely contested as it would bring an economic boost including about £500,000 of business rate revenue for the winning local authority. The corporation is expected to make a recommendation on its preferred option next month before starting a consultation with traders until the summer.

It is thought to favour the Barking power station option after it paid about £100 million to buy it from ATCO Power Generation and secure the 42-acre site before Christmas. But last week Redbridge council unveiled rival plans for a combined market facility on 162 acres of open land at Hainault Road, Little Heath in Fairlop.

Smithfield is the only one of the three markets to remain at its original site in the heart of the City. There are records of a meat market dating back to at least 1174. Billingsgate moved from Lower Thames Street to Poplar in 1982, while Spitalfields relocated to Leyton in 1991.

Any move would require a private Bill to be to be passed by Parliament and the corporation is expected to submit the proposed legislation in the autumn.

James Tumbridge, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Markets Committee, said: "The City's three world-leading wholesale food markets at Billingsgate, New Spitalfields and Smithfield have been serving our citizens for hundreds of years, and we are committed to their future for London.

“In order to secure their continued success and best possible future, following a strategic review, we are developing a programme for consolidating the City Corporation’s wholesale markets onto one site. The aim is to offer more modern facilities and space for our traders to grow and support the food economy of London beyond our current offering.

“As part of this programme we are consulting with the market tenants, traders and their customers, and other key stakeholders in London. We will have a public consultation in 2019 on our options to determine where our future markets will be located .

“Our number one priority is to maintain a top-quality market environment serving London.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in