FOOD MARKETS, FORMER

See Also: CHEESE; DEVELOPMENTS; ESTATES; FOOD MARKETS; GRAIN The Corn Exchange; HAY; MEAT Smithfield Market; STREET MARKETS

Billingsgate Market

London's fish trade moved from Queenhithe Dock to Billingsgate Market in Lower Thames Street in the 14^thC during the reign of King Edward III.

The modern fish market was established by Act of Parliament in 1699. The quay was used for landing a range of non-piscine goods, notably coal. However, as London's population gradually moved out of the City of London, fish became the principal commodity that was traded within Billingsgate.

In 1982 the market moved eastwards to a thirteen-acre site in West India Dock on the Isle of Dogs.

Location: 16 Lower Thames Street, EC3R 6DX (orange, red)

See Also: CITY LIVERY COMPANIES The Fishmongers Company; JEWISH FOOD Smoked Salmon; TIMELY EELS

Website: www.oldbillingsgate.co.uk

Market Porters

Billingsgate s porters were renowned for their colourful language ( colourful that is if you can appreciate a range of blue hues). It has been claimed that Sir Christopher Wren built small windows into the eastern wall of the nearby Church of St Magnus-the-Martyr (1676) so that worshippers there would not have to hear the market workers profanities.

See Also: CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHURCHES; HEADGEAR Fish Porters Hats; JEWISH FOOD Smoked Salmon; LANGUAGE & SLANG

Covent Garden Market

In 1536, during the dissolution of the monasteries, the Russell family acquired the garden of a convent that had been sited to the north of the Strand. Their townhouse, Bedford House, was built between the road and what is now Covent Garden piazza. In the 17^thC it became apparent that London was growing westwards. In order to profit from this expansion, the 4^th Earl of Bedford decided to develop the property. He hired Inigo Jones to act as his planner-architect for a new suburb that was built upon the property. In 1671 King Charles II granted the 1^st Duke of Bedford the right to have a daily fruit and vegetable market in Covent Garden.

The 6^th Duke was responsible for the erection of the Central Market Building (1830). The Jubilee Hall was added in 1908. A decade later the 11^th Duke sold Covent Garden to the Covent Garden Estate Company Ltd., a private company. The market's second market building was created in 1933 in order to take advantage of the then low bank interest rates.¹

Covent Garden was acquired in 1962 by the Covent Garden Market Authority, a government agency. Four years later the Authority bought from British Rail a 68-acre site at Nine Elms in inner, south-west London. This became New Covent Garden Market. In 1974 the original Covent Garden Market was closed. The Greater London Council paid 6m for the twelve-acre property. The site became the subject of a conflict between the local authority's planners, who wished to raze the buildings on it, and members of the public. The latter won.

The restored Covent Market Buildings were re-opened in 1981.

Location: Covent Garden, WC2E 8HB (blue, purple)

See Also: DISTRICT CHANGE Covent Garden; ESTATES The Bedford Estates, Covent Garden; FRUIT; ROADS The London Box

¹. In taxi slang old Covent Garden Market was known as The Flowerpot.

Hungerford Market

Hungerford Market disappeared beneath Charing Cross Railway Station.

Location: Charing Cross Railway Station, Strand, WC2N 5HS (yellow, pink)

Leadenhall Market

In the mid- and late 1370s the condottiere Sir John Hawkwood transferred funds to his agents in England by means of Italian merchants who were based in Bruges. The money was used to buy a number of properties in London and Essex, including the reversion of Leadenhall from the widow of Sir John Neville. In 1377 non-Londoners were given permission to sell cheese and butter on the property.

In 1409 the warlord's heirs sold Leadenhall to the wealthy mercer, moneylender, and City official Richard Whittington. He sold the site on to the Corporation of the City of London two years later. The property developed into being a retail food market. Meat was the principal commodity that was sold there.¹

In the 19^thC the bodies of wild birds, such as skylarks, could still be bought in Leadenhall Market.

Location: Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LT (red, blue)

See Also: FOREIGN RELATIONS Sir John Hawkwood; DICK WHITTINGTON

Website: https://leadenhallmarket.co.uk

¹. Percy Bysshe Shelley is reputed to have been a descendant of his. The poet's vegetarianism bordered upon veganism.

Spitalfields Market

In 1682 John Balch, a Huguenot silk-weaver, was granted a charter to hold a market in Spitalfields. The Goldschmidts bought the market from him. In 1856 Robert Horner, a horticultural wholesaler, purchased the site from the family. He invested heavily in its buildings. It was only then that Spitalfields grew into being a large market. In 1920 the City of London acquired the property. During the 1920s the Corporation made major improvements to the buildings and facilities of the Commercial Street site.

In 1991 the fruit and vegetable market relocated to Temple Mills, Waltham Forest. The following year a new, general Sunday market started up.

Location: Old Spitalfields Market, 56 Brushfield Street, E1 6AA (orange, purple)

See Also: CAMDEN MARKET; PORTOBELLO MARKET; STREET MARKETS East End Street Markets

Website: www.spitalfields.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024