Smithfield Market

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Smithfield Market: East and West Market Buildings

The Smithfield Market (today's official name: London Central Markets ) is one of the oldest markets of Britain and the largest wholesale meat market in the country. It is north of the City of London close to the metro -Haltestelle Farringdon and today consists of three market halls ( East and West Market Building [ Meat Market ], Poultry Market [poultry market]), which at times has its own tunnel system with rails were supplied. The market halls of the Meat Market are Grade II * , the access to the basement (ramp) and the Poultry Market are Grade II buildings. The owner is the City of London. Before the development, the Smithfield Market site had also been used as a gathering, tournament and execution site since the 10th century . Horses were sold there from 1150, which over time developed into the largest cattle market in England.

history

Before the construction of the market halls

Bartholomew Fair , illustration from the Microcosm of London from 1808

Originally the area was called Smoothfield because of its wide, open area , which stood for "smooth plain" (German: flat plain) and developed from the old Saxon "Smeeth Felde" (smeeth = smooth) to Smithfield.

The market, now known as Smithfield Market, can look back on around 800 years of tradition. At that time the market was located in front of the London city ​​wall and has been used as a cattle market since 1150 because of its favorable location on meadows and the nearby Fleet River . The place was also the venue for tournaments, duels, executions and major fairs, such as the "Bartholomew Fair". This internationally known fair took place annually from 1133 to 1855 and was opened on Bartholomew's Day , August 24th, by the Lord Mayor of London. The market lasted for several days, at times two weeks.

In 1374 Edward III. a week-long knight tournament for Alice Perrers ' amusement . During his reign, the City of London was granted market rights, so that fees and duties could also be collected for the cattle market and the nearby Newgate. His grandson and heir to the throne Richard II also held a major tournament at Smithfield Market in 1390 after he met there in 1381 to negotiate as part of the Peasants' Revolt with the insurgents, at the end of which their leader Wat Tyler was murdered. Smithfield Market was also a place of execution and the pyre for the burning of witches and the cremations of Protestants ordered during Queen Mary I's reign - the so-called Smithfield Burnings . The Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace was executed there in 1305.

The cattle trade increased steadily; While 8,304 cattle were sold in 1731, in 1844 there were already 216,848 cattle, 1,804,850 sheep (approx. 30,000 per week) and an additional 250,000 pigs. This made Smithfield Market the largest cattle market in the world. Around the square, which had already been paved in 1684, shops connected to the market, i.e. slaughterhouses and warehouses, butchers, market offices, taverns and banks, settled. Little by little, London grew and the site was no longer isolated, but directly in the area of ​​the City of London . Because of this and the increasing demand for meat, more and more problems became apparent. Serious injuries could result from the dirt and fleeing animals on the narrow market streets. As the number of visitors increased, so did the number of thieves. Criticism was also raised because of the hygienic conditions - Smithfield Market is said to have been responsible for a cholera outbreak, for example -, the narrow pens for the increased number of animals and the noise from barkers and cattle. Charles Dickens describes this atmosphere in Oliver Twist :

Smithfield Market 1855

“ It was market day. The floor was covered with dirt and mud so that you sank almost to your ankles, and above it was a thick vapor that rose incessantly from smoking cattle shells and mixed with the mist that hung like a blanket over the chimney caps. Two or three long rows of cows and oxen stood beside the gutters, tied to stakes. Peasants, butchers, drovers, young crooks, thieves and tramps billowed together in colorful piles. The barking of the women, the barking of the dogs, the roaring and stamping of the ox, the bleating of the sheep, the grunting of the pigs and the shouting of the traders echoed from every nook and cranny. Unshaven, filthy figures ran to and fro, rushing in and out of the crowd: in short, it was a disconcerting, repulsive spectacle. "

- Charles Dickens : Oliver Twist

This criticism arose from 1800; however, another 55 years passed before the Smithfield cattle market closed. During this time, dozens of applications and petitions were made for and against the closure of the market. Even the City of London, as the owner, changed its minds over time. In 1852, live animal trade and slaughter was banned at Smithfield Market, and the cattle market moved to Caledonian Market in Islington, London , where it continued into the mid-20th century. The meat sales moved to Newgate Market.

Because of the restrictions on bringing live cattle to London following the outbreak of rinderpest , more and more animals were slaughtered in the countryside and brought into the city by rail. Demand grew and the cramped conditions at Newgate Market soon led to new complaints. In the last week of Christmas in 1867 alone, 800 tons of meat were delivered. In 1860, the City of London Corporation passed an ordinance authorizing the construction of market halls on the site of the former market ("The Metropolitan Meat and Poultry Market Act of 1860"). The Markets Improvement Committee was in charge of the organization and received £ 200,000 for new buildings and £ 235,000 for land purchases. Horace Jones (1805–1887), architect of the City of London from 1864 and later responsible for the designs for Leadenhall and Billingsgate Market and Tower Bridge , among other things , planned the new market halls; it was his first major project in this office. Because of the controversy about whether there should be a market again in West Smithfield after the previous problems, there were several requirements that had to be met with the new building. The London Corporation made the connection to the railroad traffic, a generous air circulation and an adequate water supply system for the cleaning compulsory.

Market halls

The market halls 1873

Smithfield Market today consists of the West and East Buildings , Meat Market and the Poultry Market (poultry market). The overall complex also includes the General Market , which consists of the General Market building, the Red House (originally a cold store and fish market) and the Engine House , which, as an engine room, supplied the Red House with energy. These buildings are no longer used as market buildings, but kept their names; plans for modernization and new use have been drawn up since 2002. Since 2015 the Museum of London has been expanding the main building, the General Market, as its new location. First, the Meat Market (A1 and A2 on the map) began in 1867. Poultry Market (B) followed in 1875, which was destroyed by fire on January 23, 1958 and then rebuilt in 1962. In 1883 the General Market (C) was opened, which was originally intended for the sale of fruit and vegetables, but was rededicated as the fish market until it opened. A separate building was built for the fish market (D) in 1887 and the general market - with the exception of part of the area that was added to the meat market - became a general wholesale market.

Location of the individual buildings

About 170,000 tons of soil were excavated for the foundation and tunnel system of the meat market halls. On June 5, 1867, the chairman of the Markets Improvement Committee laid the foundation stone for the two market halls East Market and West Market (see A1 and A2 on the map below). The building is 195 m long and 74 m wide. It is located exactly on the previous place where the pens were housed. For all other buildings, the road network, which dates back to the Middle Ages, had to be redesigned and expanded. The Meat Market was partly built over the then newly built railway line in order to keep delivery routes as short as possible. The tunnels in the basement also served as cold storage. The goods were transported to the market halls with an elevator, which was a special feature at the time. In the ceiling of the cellar, 21 main girders were placed across the width, over which longitudinal girders were placed crosswise. Arches were built into this support system. The ceiling was then poured with concrete and asphalt as a base for the floor of the market halls.

Overall, Horace Jones built according to the latest technical knowledge at the time. In his previous projects he had also used styles of Renaissance architecture , such as columns, arches , abundant facade decorations and the symmetrical arrangement; He worked these design elements into the plans for Smithfield Market. The market halls can be assigned to the Italian-French Renaissance.

The market halls West and East Building are two halls, but they are visually connected by a portal that spans a thoroughfare between the halls. There are four octagonal towers at the four corners of the hall rectangle.

In the meantime, refrigerated trucks have replaced the subway as a means of transport for the huge quantities of meat and slaughtering on the grounds of the market has long been banned.

offer

In 1990 the market halls were renovated. Since then, 23 of the original 162 stands have been located in the East and 21 in the West Building . The stands have become sales units that have been adapted to the requirements of the stand owners in terms of size and technical equipment. In addition to the common types of meat such as beef , pork and sheep, you can also buy exotic products such as crocodile meat or camel meat at Smithfield Market . The main customers of the market are restaurants, butchers and hotels; about 5% of sales go to individuals. In total, Smithfield Market sells 110,000 tons of meat per year. There is also a fish market on the Smithfield Market site. The market is open from 3:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the latest during the week, with most stalls closing at 9:00 a.m.

In 2012 the market was one of the filming locations for the James Bond film Skyfall ; the tunnel system represented an underground headquarters.

Web links

Commons : Smithfield Market  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b History of The Area. Smithfield Market Tennants' Association, accessed March 2, 2018 .
  2. ↑ A Potted History of Smithfield Market. From: Clerkenwellpost.com, accessed March 20, 2018.
  3. ^ Walter Thornbury: Smithfield. In: Old and New London: Volume 2, Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London 1878, pp. 339-344. British History Online British History Online , accessed March 18, 2018.
  4. ^ Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist (illustrated) . Translated from the English by Gustav Meyrink. Clap Publishing 2017, pp. 162-163, ISBN 978-1-63537-676-0 .
  5. ^ A b c Walter Thornbury: The Metropolitan Meat Market. In: Old and New London: Volume 2, Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London 1878, pp. 491-496, British History Online , accessed March 11, 2018.
  6. ↑ a b Kate Sumnall: Transforming Smithfield Market . Museums of London blog of February 2, 2016, accessed April 10, 2018.
  7. ↑ Markus M. Haefliger: All meat in this world . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 23, 2016, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed on March 2, 2018]).
  8. ^ Smithfield Market. The New Vision. Published by SAVE Britain's Heritage, 2012, (PDF 1.88 MB) p. 2.

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '4.4 "  N , 0 ° 6' 17.3"  W.