The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-25 00:00:00

NEW SMITHFIELD MARKET.
(From the Daily News of Thursday.)
The supply of the metropolis with its daily food,
is a question affecting the interests and pockets of
two millions of people. It is not a question to be
trifled with, or to be treated in a tone of t coff or banter.
The question is, how can the vast population of
London be supplied with their meat most easily,
conveniently, and at the cheapest rate ?
Smithfield-market is condemned altogether. It is
condemned not only by the R )yal Commissioners but
by the Corporation of the city of Lendon,,who are to
be viewed in the light of its owners. Parliament,
therefore, will have next session to consider what
arrangements shall he made to provide a cattle end
meat-market for London.
It is a noticeable fact, that the Royal Commissioners
who reported in favour of the abolition of Smith-
field, proposed no plan of any sort for a market to
supply its place. They expressly " abstained from
indicating any particular site." The Commission,
however, thought it highly desirable " that the go-
vernment of the market should be vested in the Cor-
poration of London :" that the Corporation should
make the market and levy the tolls upon it. They
reported very strongly upon this point, and it is,
therefore, to the Corporation of London that we turn
to see what they propose with a view to carry out the
Commissioners' report.
The Corporation of London have recently given
notice of a Bill " for enlarging Smithfield-market
and improving the approaches to it." The plan
which they propose involves the abolition or removal
of the existing Smithfield-market. Upon the existing
site of Smithfield-market they propose to carry out
great popular improvements : the roadways to be en-
larged and improved ; new thoroughfares be made,
greatly adding to the general convenience ; sites pro-
vided for baths and wash-houses, as well as for ex-
tensive lodging-houses for the convenience of the
City poor, in the district in which of all others they
are most densely crowded together. At the same
time, that intolerable nuisance, Newgate-market,
would be abolished, and Newgate-street conse-
quently cleared of a great part of the hindrances at
present existing to free communication through that
important thoroughfare. A locality which is now a
scene of intolerable filth and nastiness would thus be
purged. Lying, as it does, in the heart of the most
important business portion of the capital, the abolition
of this market may be made to afford facilities to com-
merce as well as to improvements.
These concessions being made, what is it the Corpo-
ration propose with a view to the supply of London
with its meat ? Probably there are not many of our
readers who have passed up that-unfortunate, because
unfinished, street, which was opened at one end ten
years ago, and through which we were promised an
easy and straight communication from Blackfriars to
Islingtcn. Victoria-street, presenting a broad and
inviting front at Holborn-bridge, becomes at a little
distance a black and dreary vacant space, which for ten
years has lain in the midst of all the wealthi London
vacant and unprofitable ground, "to let on building
leases." Now, there are two causes why Victoria-
street has been so little built upon. The first is that
it is still a eel de sac; the second is the dreadful cha-
racter of the neighbourhood on either side of it.
Saffron-hill bounds it on the west :if possible a still
worse locality exists upon the east. If any one wants
to see the squalor, the misery, the horrors of London,
in all their most desperate and dreadful phases, we
recommend a pilgrimage to the courts of the parish
of St. Sepulchre, which lie between Cow-cross-street
and Snow-hill. Durham-yard, Sharp's-alley,Green-
hill's-rents, and College -court will compete for hideous
deformity with anything that either St. George's in the
East or St. George s in the Borough can present. It was
here, amid the close, undrained, and ventilated alleys
that escaped the fire of London, that the cholera lin-
gered latest, detained, no doubt, by the disgusting
and poisonous abominations which invited former
plagues to London, and which contributed to that.
Here are haunts of the most flagrant vice and of
the lowest immorality. It is also in these courts
that the hideous trades of the knacker, the gut-
spinner, and the bone-dealer, are carried on—trades
which exist here because in no other portion sf
the City can premises be found for them, and be-
cause, amid so much general squalor and corrup-
tion, they pass unnoticed, and therefore escape
the provisions of the law. The City propose at their
own expense to clear away the entire of this locality.
By their new buildiegs on the present site of Smith-
field-market they would provide for the poor who re-
main, whilst the representatives of the offensive trades
we have referred to would be obliged to find another
scene for their business, and in all probability would be
forced to remove to a distance from the town.
Upon the site thus cleared, the City propose to con-
struct a new market, on a greatly improved system,
affording accommodation for 5,000 (insteed of 2,750),
cattle, and for 36,000 (instead of, as now, 30,000)
sheep: this market is to be enclosed. It would be so
placed, as to be apart from all existing thoroughfares,
and from all interference with existing traffic. The
general business of the City would not be impeded
as it now is, by the throng of Smithfield or of New-
gate. The new market would have streets of its
own, and there would be such regulations for manag-
ing the traffice to it as would preclude all possibility
of interference with the general business of the me-
tropolis.
The site of this market would extend from the pre-
sent most eastern boundary of Smithfield down the
inclined plane towards Victoria-street. By this
arrangement proper provision would be made for the
se wage and clearing of the market ; and with a view
to secure that object more effectually it is also pro-
posed to erect upon part of the present site of Smith-
field a large fountain and reservoir, from which there
might be so abundant a supply that the market may
be flushed as often as it can possibly require it. The
cattle-market itself would not extend to Victoria-
street. At the western extremity, and consequently
abutting on that street, it is proposed to erect a hand-
some dead meat market, to supply the place of New-
gate. This market in its general characteristics
would not be unlike Farringdon-market—a market
which by general concurrence is an ornament and a
convenience rather than a nuisance or a detriment to
London.

In connexion with the dead meat market it is pro-
posed to erect a convenient abbatoir or slaughter-
house, to stand entirely detached from dwelling-
houses, to be built on the most perfect system
experience can suggest, and to be placed under vigi-
lant police control. The use of this abbatoir would
not be compulsory on butchers, but it may be ex-
pected to be very generally used, and supersede the
slaughter. houses at present existing in the neighbour-
bourhood, to the arrangements of which, on the score
of humanity, convenience, and decency, too many
objections may frequently be taken.
This, then, is the plan of the Corporation. Looking
at their position with reference to this subject—
looking at the many and complicated interests in-
volved, and looking also at the great public improve-
ments to be effected, the project is one to which de-
liberate attention should be given. We are bound,
however, to look also to the objections to it. And this
we shall do to-morrow.

(From the Daily News of Friday.)
Having stated the proposals of the Corporation of
London concerning Smithfield-market, it remains to
consider the objections that can be urged against
them. If it were possible it would be important also
to consider, in connexion with this topic, what are the
objections to any other plan. But the truth is that,
except some vague proposition for the improvement
of the old Islington .market, there is no other plan
before the public. The Government proposes nothing.
The Royal Commission have contented themselves
with generalities, and we are obliged to discuss con-
jectural schemes or comparisons which are as yet but
in nubibus.
It certainly would be desirable if the great cattle
market or markets could be held outside London.
And yet we cannot see the advantage of this, unless
the cattle were to be slaughtered as well as sold at the
same distance. To purchase cattle ten miles from
town and drive them to abattoirs within the town, as
in Paris, would not much abate the present nuisance.
Yet to slaughter all beasts afar from town would be
to confine the supply of London to a dead meat
market. But this we know often disappoints both the
dealer and the public, and produces alternately glut
and scarcity, beyond any power to remedy. It is
very easy to establish abattoirs without the inhabited
quarters of Paris. But London is not so manageable.
Islington, for example, is London to all intents and
purposes. And how to get out of this interminable
13ane1, with an establishment that is to cater to its
hourly wants, is an insoluble difficulty.
The great argument to be pleaded for any plan pro-
posed by the city of London is, that they can do it
and that it can be done speedily; whilst, in going
in direct opposition to the City and to vested interests,
we run the chance of passing years without seeing
anything done. The great objection is to site, but on
that we must defer serious argument until we learn
what site is put up in opposition to it. As to the
details of the City plan, there do not seem to be many
objections. It appears to be admitted that their
new market will be sufficiently commodious; that
its arrangements will be in every way suited for
the end proposed ; and it is also certain that, whilst
effecting great public and local improvements, this