After more than 850 years of trading, both historic markets were facing closure
In 2022 it was announced that Billingsgate and Smithfield, two of London’s oldest markets, for fish and meat respectively, would be leaving the city centre and moving further east to a £1 billion, 42-acre development in Dagenham. The relocation was initiated to allow the Smithfield site to become home to the new Museum of London, which is moving from the Barbican, with the potential for around 2000 new homes to built on the Billingsgate site. It was also estimated that the move would create 2700 new jobs in Barking & Dagenham and support thousands more across the UK when the new market opened.
However, due to a rise in project costs, the City of London Corporation voted in November to halt the relocation and sought to absolve itself from the responsibility of running both markets, meaning they would be facing permanent closure from 2028. Billingsgate, the largest inland fish market in the UK, has been operating from its Docklands site since the early 80s after it relocated from a Victorian building in the City, where it had been trading since 1327. Smithfield, the largest wholesale meat market in the UK, has been running in Farringdon for almost 900 years.
When the closures were first announced, the Corporation has said that it will work with traders and provide “financial support” to help them find new locations to operate from. Now it appears that the markets may have a future. The City of London Corporation and Smithfield traders have come to an agreement to move the market to a new location inside the M25, with the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association (SMTA) saying that 70% of its members have agreed to relocate to ‘New Smithfield’.
In a statement on the move, the SMTA said, “The new facility will enable this critical mass of Traders to expand and modernise our businesses, as well as support the meat traders of the future. 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.”
The London Fish Merchants Association (LMFA) has confirmed that 90% of traders will continue to operate when Billingsgate market closes and that the search is on for a new location where the City of London Corporation is no longer the landlord.
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