The Express.
London, England, 1868-11-24 00:00:00

TEE OLD AND NEW MEAT MAILKETS.

Afters prolonged existence, markedby numerous
vicissitudes, of more than Ave hundred years,
Newituteenarket, the Priacipal of the two great
metropolitan meat depoli, following the example
of the Fleet Prises, Holborn-hill, and other once
familiar One mss, is about to become a thing
of the poet. Its fate lie long been anticipated.
When the greet esttleeraarket was removed from
lindthAeld to liiiagtose it was aonfidently pre-
Bitted that the days of Nevegate-market were
*timbered. ?or once the praphste have proved
fright; but not la the Noes intended by ftheim. The
fall seam ralehei has been ooceioned, not by the
dieted etseelera, bat brthe vast and oontinually
eandemt et badness tramearded is its crowded Ilia
• CZ11611,8 mid 89 great has been the
of trade in the, wadi* that for eitieral
years past the onions eallhareration of 1101=11111,
&inkaolitird lanee--crowded with ceremme,
• • freeelims, realm and other Aka-
eseiseerei eriaed wilds a tie
. •
raanrows spew • losaadot
row. Ivy-laae, liewgato-street, mad
021:1711111r-lhilay, bad proved too restricted for the
regeiremieste of the nemerenesalemen and bayed'
attendlogionotle
oenonen=tearreta. But for the
nitre by the site of the
old College of Pliyekieme in Warwick-lane the
market would ireedily have driven literature from
l Priiernoster-row,_ and probably have
elbowed its way to the very doors of St. Paul's
Cathedral. What will be the future fate of the
college, with its spire crowned with the golden
globe, satirised by Garth as seeming " to the die-
eint sight a gilded Pill," we shall be curious to
lesrni The College of Physicians is, however, not
the only place in the neighbourhood which has
sunk from its high mate, and degenerated into a
butchers' shambles. The Bell Inn, one of the few
ancient City hostelries yet existing, and built on
the site of the princely mansion, destroyed in the
great fire, of the famous Icing-maker, has long
has its courtyard completely monopolised by meat
dealers and butchers. It was in this inn that the
pions Archbishop Leighton ended his earthly pil-
grimage. The room in which the prelate died yet
exists. The enormous expansion of tho dead-
ened trade in Newgate-market is due wholly to
the increased facilities offered for the safe and
speedy conveyance of moat by the various rail-
ways possessing direct communication with the
metropolis. In 1810 the number of metropolitan
dealers in country-killed moat did not exceed 10 ;
at present it ranges from 250 to 300. The quan-
tity of dead meat disposed of annually by these
salesmen is far greater than the public arc gene-
rally aware of ; for although the exact quantity
cannot be accurately ascertained, it is known to
amount to over 150,000 tons, of which some' 0,000
tons are sold in Ne.wgate-market. The meat is
' sent both in carcases and in plows. Beef is usually
forwarded in quarters, pigs whole, calves and
sheep both whole and in quarters. The carcases
are packed in cloths, and the pieces in hampers,
the majority of cloths and hampers being supplied
by the railway companies. The country-killed meat
is sent principally during the cooler months of the
year, the hides, hoofs, horns, de., remaining in
the country, for use in manufacturing processes.
Large quantities of diseased meat are continually
cent up Ly dishonest dealers, but it seldom escapes
the vigilant eye of the meat inspector, by whom
it is instantly condemned and ordered to be
destroyed. The earlier supplies of country-killed
meat were invariably brought to the Bell Inn, also
to the Oxford Arms Inn, us the seine neighbour-
hood. The latter building is situated near Amen-
corner, and is described as being " one of the best
speeinicns of the old London mns remaining in
the metropolis." With the removed of Newgate-
tenritet the continued preservation of the yet pie-
taresque hostelry is extremely doubtful.
The busiest market period is during the two or
three weeks preceding Christmas, when the
shops and stalls arc filled up with beef and
mutton from all parts of the kingdom, especially
from Scotland. In the week preceding last
Christmas no less than 800 tins of m est
were brought to Newgate-market by three rail-
ways alune—the Great Northern, the Great
Eastern, and the Midland. This was exclusive of
the vast quantity arriving by the North Western
and other lines. When to this is added the pro-
portion received by the market of the thousands
of animals slaughtered every week by the metro-
politun butches, we begin to form some adequate
idea of the magnitude of the dead-meat busmess
as carried on in Nretgate-market, and cease to
wonder that the maze of crowded lanes and shops
in which the meat is at present hawked and sold
should have proved insufficient to meet the grow-
ing requirements of the trade. The general ap-
pearance of the old market has not suffered any
real change during the last two or three centuries.
In :lucent maps and plans it always appears as at
present, an open central space, surrounded by a
maze of narrow avenues, filled with butchers and
poulterers' stalls, the principal approaches being
from Warwick-lane and Newgate-street. After
its destruction in the Great Fire the market was
rebuilt precisely in its olden forte, the only differ-
' oleo being that the houses enclosing the central
space were rebuilt on a larger and more substan-
tial locale. The old market-house in the central
open space has, however, long disappeared.
At the beginning of the present century the
market formed one great slaughter-house, nearly
till the went sold therein being the flesh of
animals killed in the cellars and slaughter-houses
athuled to the various salesmen's shope. The
nuisance thus occasioned was fearful, but it was
long before any real remedial measiwes were
applied. Public feeling continued for many years
to be shocked by repeated accounts of needless
cruelties and tortures daily inflicted on the poor
dumb animals brought hither from Smithfield, and
snore then once the popular indignation found
vent in a loud cry in favour of the abolition of
private slaughter-houses and the establishment
of public abbatoirs in the metropolitan suburbs,
as 'etre. This latter idea was by no means a
new tote. Mr. Tin' ibs, that indefatigable fisher-
up of curious odds and ands, mentions a ptition—
yet extant, and dated 1380—to parliament, pray-
ing that the Neivgate-market butchers might 100
prevented from throwing their offal into the river
Fleet (now the Fleet sewer), anti becompelled to kill
their animals at Knightsbridge, or elsewhere out of
Lcadon. When the livecattle market was removed to
Islington an attempt was made to suppress the
private slaughter-houses, or, at least, to procure
their rerucrval from crowded metropolitan districts;
but tae effort proved ineffectual. The shambles
were, however, brought under proper official super-
vision, and no longer allowed to become 'Queues
of danger to the health of persons residing in their
neighbourhood. But when once the wave of
reform has been set in motion it is difficult to
erred its progress. The removal of the Smithfield
live cattle market all the establishment of the
new meat market are destined to be followed by
the reform desired by our ancestors nearly 300 years
ago. The unforoeineut of the Nowgate Market
Abolition Aut will probably lead to the removal
of the various existing daughter-houses in that
neighbourhood; whilst, under the provisisns of
the Building Aot, many, if not all, of the slaughter-
hews be other parts of the metropolis will, in
1874, have passed out of existence. To meet the
wind of ateonimodation thus occasioned
eons' idstughtur-houete are to be erected at the
Islington tattle market.
me of the first iumtniv. ett.itts eel; follow
the transfereitete of tee dead-meat to ado hem
Newgate-martetto its new lleale in Smithfield
will be the dirappeurunee' of the hundreds of

ONE

PENNY.

butchers' carte and ratlivay vans; which every
morning, especially on Mondays and Fridays,
blocked up Newgate-street and the adjacent
thoroughfares, renderinA the limb' •rese of
senses traffic between olborn and the City en-
tremely difficult and slow. Before the partial
widening of Newgate-street the evil was almost
beyond endurance, and bad it been allowed to
continue, the advantages arising from the
erection of the magnificent Holborn Viaduct
would have been entirely thrown away.
The removal of the long-complained-of ob.
dructions and the completion of the Holborn
Viaduct will secure to the Londoners • fine and
noble approach from the West-end to the very
heart of thth busy City. The large unoccupied
erre on each side of the new meat market will
afford ample spun for the butchers' carts, without
encroaching in the least on the neighbouring foot
and carriage Inas, while the underground own-
munisatioa eliding between the market and the •
leading Metropolitan Railway termini, will resale
uonebessektf sosasidarable_ pee
ban trirpes
laden railway vans I watch • ban an •
oWsitemed tiss mem of qibmen and
the deapant gd Mei polioe. The only in OP
to* Idietbef the new market is
large do meet future • requirements, Thatillijil
meat trade •is. increasing at an enamour rate,
and a few years hens its present giamito
tions well appear oomparatavely msigarikaptille7
oboeneFgzeof meat beeps peee with the 'meters
of , the inmate. being principally ha
. In 1849 there were sold in Smithfield
175,343 heed of cattle and 1,438,960 glair. la •
1854 the numbers had increased to 264,908 cattle
and 1,539,380 sheep. The average monthly 'apply
during the earlier part of the present year wee
about 18,000 cattle and 90,000 sheep, beide,
calves and pigs, which, with the largely increased
supplies during the few weeks preceding Christ-
mas, show a total far greater than could have bent
anticipated, considering the vast and increasing
number of animals slaughtered without being
brought to market.—Daily News.

MUSIC.