page_title: Smithfield, London
section_title: Victorian Smithfield: meat and poultry market
hierarchical_section_title: Smithfield, London / Market / Victorian Smithfield: meat and poultry market
caption_attribution_description: English: Decoration on the Eastern side of the Fish Market (1888), Smithfield, London.
context_page_description: Smithfield is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. The principal street of the area is West Smithfield.
  A number of City institutions are located in the area, such as St Bartholomew's Hospital, the Charterhouse, and Livery Halls, including those of the Butchers' and Haberdashers' Companies. Smithfield's meat market dates from the 10th century, and is now London's only remaining wholesale market in continuous operation since medieval times. The area also contains London's oldest surviving church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, founded in 1123 AD.
  Smithfield has borne witness to many executions of heretics and political rebels over the centuries, including Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace, and Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants' Revolt, among many other religious reformers and dissenters.
  Smithfield Market, a Grade II listed-covered market building, was designed by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones in the second half of the 19th century, and is the dominant architectural feature of the area.
context_section_description: The present Smithfield meat market on Charterhouse Street was established by Act of Parliament: the 1860 Metropolitan Meat and Poultry Market Act. It is a large market with permanent buildings, designed by architect Sir Horace Jones, who also designed Billingsgate and Leadenhall Markets.  Work on the Central Market, inspired by Italian architecture, began in 1866 and was completed in November 1868 at a cost of £993,816 (£90 million as of 2020).
  The Grade II listed main wings (known as East and West Market) are separated by the Grand Avenue, a wide roadway roofed by an elliptical arch with decorations in cast iron. At the two ends of the arcade, four prominent statues represent London, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Dublin; they depict bronze dragons charged with the City's armorial bearings. At the corners of the market, four octagonal pavilion towers were built, each with a dome displaying carved stone griffins.
  As the Market was being built, a cut and cover railway tunnel was constructed underground City street level to create a triangular junction with the railway between Blackfriars and Kings Cross through Snow Hill Tunnel. Closed in 1916, it has been revived and is now used for Thameslink rail services. The construction of extensive railway sidings, beneath Smithfield Park, facilitated the transfer of animal carcasses to its Cold Store, and directly up to the Meat Market via lifts. These sidings closed in the 1960s. They are now used as a car park, accessed via a cobbled descent at the centre of Smithfield Park. Today, much of the meat is delivered to market by road.
  The first extension of Smithfield's meat market took place between 1873 and 1876 with the construction of the Poultry Market immediately west of the Central Market. A rotunda was built at the centre of the old Market Field (now West Smithfield), comprising gardens, a fountain and a ramped carriageway to the station beneath the market building. Further buildings were subsequently added to the market. The General Market, built between 1879 and 1883, was intended to replace the old Farringdon Market located nearby and established for the sale of fruit and vegetables when the earlier Fleet Market was cleared to enable the laying out of Farringdon Street between 1826–1830.
  A further block (also known as Annexe Market or Triangular Block,) consisting of two separate structures (the Fish Market and the Red House), was built between 1886 and 1899. The Fish Market, built by John Mowlem & Co., was completed in 1888, one year after Sir Horace Jones' death. The Red House, with its imposing red brick and Portland stone façade, was built between 1898 and 1899 for the London Central Markets Cold Storage Co. Ltd.. It was one of the first cold stores to be built outside the London docks and continued to serve Smithfield Market until the mid-1970s.
caption: Dilapidated decorations at Smithfield.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Fish Market (1888), Smithfield, London.", "Image Make": "KONICA MINOLTA", "Image Model": "DYNAX 5D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:01:17 12:21:42", "Image Artist": "Dario Taraborelli", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.5.1", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "336", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "966", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6764", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:09:29 11:56:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:09:29 11:56:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "7", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "497/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1504, 1000, 256, 304]", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1316", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "875", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Bracket", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "105", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}