Comments on: The Closure Of Smithfield Market

By: Chu

Chu — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 23:54:14 +0000

What vague and unconvincing reasons. How will businesses getting meat from further away address “environmental and pollution concerns”? Sounds like utter nonsense and more like snouts in the trough of “development”. Who will live in the no-doubt luxury dwellings which will ensue? And what’s the point of living in town anyway these days? Proximity to pret?

By: Valery

Valery — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 12:40:56 +0000

All things must change to something new, to something strange. The similar situation can be seen in some other countries… deeply regret.

By: Jane McLaren

Jane McLaren — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 08:04:13 +0000

My late big brother Ross enjoyed a fantastic career with Sainsburys and loved visiting Smithfield Market. I remember one of his many stories was about how the hooks were set off clanging down the line to mark notice of an important visitor but I wonder if anyone else remembers this custom and why they were set off?

A sad day. Our cities are losing the very idiosyncratic historical entities that make them authentic, interesting places to visit. I despair at the greed behind modern theme park style overcrowded tourism. Many people are moving out of city centre housing because it is degrading the joy of city living.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:01:03 +0000

I was really sad to read about this and Billingsgate. I’ve also read flats are to be built, I hope it’s not going to be more luxury unaffordable housing!

By: Ann Vosper

Ann Vosper — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 08:01:37 +0000

Tragic. More of our heritage gone.

By: Dorothy V. Malcolm

Dorothy V. Malcolm — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 17:05:07 +0000

I find this sad. Eight hundred years and now this. Where are the preservationists and protestors? Hard to believe this is even happening.

— Dorothy V. Malcolm

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:50:19 +0000

May I say how much I enjoyed visiting this all-male enclave? Men, in all their glory.
I loved how some are “caught” in a private moment, some stand full-frontal and seem to say “here I am, world”, and others are captured in the midst of their WORK. All wearing the clothing of their specialized trade, all exuding their dedication to a long-held tradition.

I’m a traditionalist, so the loss of any of these trades and locales is mournful. Goodness, just seeing the gates and archways of the market site made my heart beat faster — and then meeting the men
was the topper. Onward and upward, all.

By: Jennifer Newbold

Jennifer Newbold — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 13:23:37 +0000

Was it the relocation of the Museum of London that sealed Smithfield Market’s fate? I do hope not, since 800 years of history is certainly part of London’s enduring appeal. I’m afraid that the City planners are going to turn London into a bland, sanitised ghost of itself.

I stayed in a hotel in September that was only a block away from Smithfield Market, and when I woke unexpectedly at 4am one morning, I could hear the market activity. Now I’m sad that I didn’t get up and go have a “butcher’s” while I still could.

By: Bethea Jenner

Bethea Jenner — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:24:25 +0000

Another piece in the jigsaw of London’s destruction. The beneficiaries of this are the property developers and supermarket chains. Sad to see.

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 10:03:09 +0000

Sincerely, I don’t get it. A city eats, it needs markets… Sanitizing? They are hundreds ways to sanitize a city without moving a market that has been here for 800 years. Why do downtowns have to all look alike? Why are the old shops disappearing and ar replaced with chains? It makes me sad and angry. We’ll all soon dress the same way and have the same hairdoes…