Smithfield once sat just outside London’s medieval wall. Then it was “Smeeth field” – taking the Old English word for smooth to describe the flat, open area which stretched west to the River Fleet.
Bartholomew’s Fair was held annually from 1133. The event, which began on St Bartholomew’s day (24 August) and lasted for several days, was the national market for the sale of cloth. In 1174, William Fitzstephen described it as “A smooth field where every Friday there is a celebrated rendezvous of fine horses to be sold… [pigs] with deep flanks, and cows and oxen of immense bulk.”
Animals were kept at Smithfield to be rested and fattened up. Once sold, they headed inside the walls to the Newgate Shambles – the city’s main slaughterhouses – or to Eastcheap, a market in the east of the city.“IT WAS MARKET MORNING. THE GROUND WAS COVERED, NEARLY ANKLE-DEEP, WITH FILTH AND MIRE”Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1837–1839
The plentiful space beyond the wall attracted religious organisations to Smithfield, including St Bartholomew’s, founded in 1123, and the Charterhouse, built in 1371.
The open space was also ideal for football, archery and medieval tournaments, where knights jousted on horseback.
Smithfield was often used for public executions
Oxen were sold here from 1305
and the Corporation of London gained the right to collect market tolls from
1400, although it was not until 1638 that a formal charter was granted. Cattle
were driven here from as far away as the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Turkeys
waddled from Norfolk wearing little cloth shoes on their feet.
The agricultural revolution of the 18th century brought extraordinary developments in animal fattening techniques. In 1795 the average carcass sold at Smithfield weighed twice what it had done in 1710.
The scale of operations at the livestock market created an
increasingly hazardous public nuisance but self-interested parties long
resisted relocation to a more suitable site. Finally, the Smithfield Market
Removal Act of 1852 moved the trade in live animals to Copenhagen Fields.
Bartholomew’s Fair was suppressed in 1855 and Smithfield’s
street pattern was reconfigured, focused on new central buildings for the
market. These have since been refurbished to bring them up to European Union
hygiene standards – all very different from the picture of ‘filth and mire’
conjured up by Dickens in Oliver Twist.
Housed in an innovative set of buildings, served directly by trains beneath the market floor, Smithfield was a statement of London’s status as one of the world’s great cities.
Smithfield market has
now relocated outside the City, as meat is delivered by refrigerated
trucks that were barely able to negotiate the narrow streets. In 1994 the Court
of Appeal ruled that the Corporation owns Smithfield whether or not it is used
as a market
In the 21st century, many of those buildings have stood empty for decades. But today Smithfield is being carefully restored, creating a new home for the London museum at one of the city’s crossroads, part of a story stretching back centuries.
It was here, in 1305, that Scottish rebel William Wallace was hung, drawn and quartered. Wat Tyler, leader of the failed 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, was also executed at Smithfield.
During the 16th-century reign of Queen Mary I, Protestant men and women were burnt to death at Smithfield as punishment for their religious beliefs.
This annual summer gathering at Smithfield ran for over 700 years. Starting in 1133 as a trade show for buyers and sellers of cloth, the food, drink and sideshows eventually became the main attraction.
By the 1600s, London’s most famous fair was pure entertainment – two weeks where crowds gathered for food, drink, puppet shows, wrestlers, a ferris wheel, dancing bears and contortionists.
Many Londoners loved it. But the chaos disturbed those who wanted a civilised city. Bartholomew Fair was shut down in 1855.
London’s continuous expansion saw the area around Smithfield become a maze of crowded streets, untouched by the 1666 Great Fire of London.
The market grew, as did the noisy procession of animals which made their way there.
The livestock market was closed in the 1850s. In 1855 the City of London Corporation opened a new livestock market and slaughterhouses in Islington, north London, replacing Smithfield and the Newgate Shambles.
The new covered meat market was a spectacular, modern upgrade.
Construction of a covered market at Smithfield began in 1866. From then until the 21st century, Smithfield has been a wholesale meat market, where traders process carcasses, primarily to sell to shops and restaurants.
The imposing and elegant complex of buildings included the Central Meat Market, General Market and Poultry Market. All were innovatively designed to help business run smoothly in the face of mountains and mountains of meat.
Smithfield adopted the latest materials and technology – a demonstration of London’s wealth and modernity.
The General Market’s extra-strong Phoenix columns held up the enormous ceiling – allowing for a large, open hall. Its roof used laminated wood rather than iron to avoid storing heat, keeping the space cool. And pioneering cold stores and refrigeration were added over time.
The market’s most revolutionary feature took advantage of London’s growing railway network.
Smithfield was connected to the north, south, east and west. Metropolitan Railway freight trains passed right underneath the market.
So the architect designed a massive basement of brick arches and iron girders to receive them. From there, the meat was lifted to the surface by hydraulic lift, or taken up the spiral ramp in the nearby rotunda.
In the 21st century, many of those buildings have stood empty for decades. But today Smithfield is being carefully restored, creating a new home for the London museum at one of the city’s crossroads, part of a story stretching back centuries.
During the 16th-century reign of Queen Mary I, Protestant men and women were burnt to death at Smithfield as punishment for their religious beliefs.
This annual summer gathering at Smithfield ran for over 700 years. Starting in 1133 as a trade show for buyers and sellers of cloth, the food, drink and sideshows eventually became the main attraction.
By the 1600s, London’s most famous fair was pure entertainment – two weeks where crowds gathered for food, drink, puppet shows, wrestlers, a ferris wheel, dancing bears and contortionists.
Many Londoners loved it. But the chaos disturbed those who wanted a civilised city. Bartholomew Fair was shut down in 1855.
London’s continuous expansion saw the area around Smithfield become a maze of crowded streets, untouched by the 1666 Great Fire of London.
The market grew, as did the noisy procession of animals which made their way there.
The livestock market was closed in the 1850s. In 1855 the City of London Corporation opened a new livestock market and slaughterhouses in Islington, north London, replacing Smithfield and the Newgate Shambles.
The new covered meat market was a spectacular, modern upgrade.
The imposing and elegant complex of buildings included the Central Meat Market, General Market and Poultry Market. All were innovatively designed to help business run smoothly in the face of mountains and mountains of meat.
Smithfield adopted the latest materials and technology – a demonstration of London’s wealth and modernity.
The General Market’s extra-strong Phoenix columns held up the enormous ceiling – allowing for a large, open hall. Its roof used laminated wood rather than iron to avoid storing heat, keeping the space cool. And pioneering cold stores and refrigeration were added over time.
The market’s most revolutionary feature took advantage of London’s growing railway network.
Smithfield was connected to the north, south, east and west. Metropolitan Railway freight trains passed right underneath the market.
So the architect designed a massive basement of brick arches and iron girders to receive them. From there, the meat was lifted to the surface by hydraulic lift, or taken up the spiral ramp in the nearby rotunda.
The first fatal accident on the Metropolitan Railway occured just outside Farringdon, at Barbican station, then called Aldersgate Street.
The tragedy occurred on 19 December 1866. The fatal blow came from above rather than from another train. A four-ton girder fell from the construction site of Smithfield Market, just over the tracks. It smashed through the roof of a second-class carriage with devastating results. One lady, 68-year-old Sarah Johnson, was killed immediately, "her skull having been frightfully fractured and her neck broken". Two other passengers in the car (Henry Lukey and Charles Passmore) and the guardsman (Charles Dant) were thrown onto the tracks. They were found still alive beneath the girder, but "crushed by its superincumbent weight... fearfully mutilated". St Bartholomew's Hospital was mercifully close to the site but the three could not be saved.
The line was up and running within half an hour.
To give customers time to buy and prepare their meat for sale the same day, the market opened at night. Workers finished their shifts in the early morning. Many headed to “early houses” – pubs within the market or nearby which opened early for workers.
The market was mostly filled with men. Their work might have seemed grisly to outsiders. But it was a tight-knit community, full of tradition, with generations of the same families working in the same place.
Until 1996, the market was heavily unionised and there were strict job divisions. You might be a puller-back, a pitcher, a shunter, shopman or bummaree ( a porter)
By the 1880s, Smithfield was receiving enormous amounts of frozen meat from Argentina, New Zealand and Australia. It was a symbol of Britain’s global influence, with London at the centre.
But from 1945, Smithfield gradually became less busy. Meat stopped arriving through London’s docks. Britain’s trading relationships changed. And supermarkets began placing orders directly with suppliers, cutting out Smithfield’s traders.
Other London markets, like Billingsgate, Spitalfields and Covent Garden, moved out of central London. Smithfield stayed, but reduced in size.
Today, the area around Smithfield is alive with culture, clubs and restaurants, connected to east and west London via nearby Farringdon Station and the new Elizabeth Line.
In 2015, the City of London Corporation invited London Museum to move into Smithfield’s General Market and Poultry Market. With more than 800 years of history on this spot, it’s the ideal place to tell London’s story, in a modern museum worthy of thegreat city.
The new museum for London opens in 2026.
The tragedy occurred on 19 December 1866. The fatal blow came from above rather than from another train. A four-ton girder fell from the construction site of Smithfield Market, just over the tracks. It smashed through the roof of a second-class carriage with devastating results. One lady, 68-year-old Sarah Johnson, was killed immediately, "her skull having been frightfully fractured and her neck broken". Two other passengers in the car (Henry Lukey and Charles Passmore) and the guardsman (Charles Dant) were thrown onto the tracks. They were found still alive beneath the girder, but "crushed by its superincumbent weight... fearfully mutilated". St Bartholomew's Hospital was mercifully close to the site but the three could not be saved.
The line was up and running within half an hour.
To give customers time to buy and prepare their meat for sale the same day, the market opened at night. Workers finished their shifts in the early morning. Many headed to “early houses” – pubs within the market or nearby which opened early for workers.
The market was mostly filled with men. Their work might have seemed grisly to outsiders. But it was a tight-knit community, full of tradition, with generations of the same families working in the same place.
Until 1996, the market was heavily unionised and there were strict job divisions. You might be a puller-back, a pitcher, a shunter, shopman or bummaree ( a porter)
By the 1880s, Smithfield was receiving enormous amounts of frozen meat from Argentina, New Zealand and Australia. It was a symbol of Britain’s global influence, with London at the centre.
But from 1945, Smithfield gradually became less busy. Meat stopped arriving through London’s docks. Britain’s trading relationships changed. And supermarkets began placing orders directly with suppliers, cutting out Smithfield’s traders.
Other London markets, like Billingsgate, Spitalfields and Covent Garden, moved out of central London. Smithfield stayed, but reduced in size.
Today, the area around Smithfield is alive with culture, clubs and restaurants, connected to east and west London via nearby Farringdon Station and the new Elizabeth Line.
In 2015, the City of London Corporation invited London Museum to move into Smithfield’s General Market and Poultry Market. With more than 800 years of history on this spot, it’s the ideal place to tell London’s story, in a modern museum worthy of thegreat city.
The new museum for London opens in 2026.
Dual use post box - one side for regular post, the other for pre-franked business mail
Grand Avenue, which runs through the centre of the market, is lined with the most impressive wrought-ironwork partitions and gates. Attached to these are important monuments. The above one remembers two firemen from nearby Clerkenwell Fire Station, who lost their lives in a serious fire at the market, in 1958.
The war memorial recalls the names of Smithfield workers who gave their lives in military service.
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