SMITHFIELD, LONDON

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'Smithfield' is an area in the north-west part of the City of London (which is itself the historic core of a much larger London).
Smithfield was originally the ''Smooth Field'' just outside the city walls and was used over the centuries as London's main livestock market. As a large open space close to the City it was used for jousting and gatherings such as public executions and was used as a meeting place for the peasants in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Wat Tyler was killed here on June 15, 1381.
William Wallace was executed here in 1305. Smithfield was the main site for the execution of heretics. About 50 Protestants were executed here in the reign of Mary I. Coin forgers were boiled in oil here in the 16th century.
Smithfield was the site of two monasteries - St Bartholomew the Great and Charterhouse both of which were dissolved in the reformation but both of which have survived in part into the 21st century. St Bartholomew's Hospital was established by the monastery in 1123.
In the 17th century, several residents of Smithfield emigrated to the United States where they founded the town of Smithfield, Rhode Island and named it after their hometown in England.
Charles Dickens criticized the location of a livestock market in the heart of the capital in his 1850s essay A Monument of French Folly and compared it to the French market outside Paris at Poissy. The livestock market was moved to the Metropolitan Cattle Market in Islington in 1855. The present Smithfield meat market was established by an Act of Parliament: the 1860 Metropolitan Meat and Poultry Market Act. It is a large market with permanent buildings (designed by City architect Sir Horace Jones). Work on the eastern and western building began in 1866 and was completed in November 1868. Further buildings added to the market in later years include the General Market in 1883 and the Annexe Market in 1888.
Smithfield is one of the few of the great London markets not to have moved from its central site to a location further out with cheaper land, better transport links and more modern facilities (compare with Covent Garden and Billingsgate). Since the market is designed to supply inner city butchers, shops and restaurants with meat for the coming day, the trading hours are from 0400 - 1200 every weekday.^[1]
Instead Smithfield market has been modernised on its existing site; for instance, its imposing Victorian buildings have had access points added for lorry loading/unloading purposes. The buildings sit on top of a warren of tunnels: initially, live animals were brought to the market on foot (from the mid 19th century onwards they arrived by rail) and were slaughtered on site. This no longer takes place and the former railway tunnels are now used for storage, parking and as basements. An impressive cobbled ramp spirals down round the public park now known as West Smithfield, on the south side of the market, to give access to part of this area: some of the buildings on Charterhouse Street on the north side have access into the tunnels from their basements.
Some of the buildings formerly associated with the meat market have now been put to other uses. For example the former Central Cold Store is now, most unusually, a city centre power station operated by Citigen. Another former cold store now houses the nightclub Fabric.
The public park comprises the centre of the only part of Smithfield which is still open space - this is in effect a large square with the market making one side and mostly older buildings the other three. The south side is occupied by St Bartholomew's Hospital (frequently known as ''Barts''), and part of the east side by the church of St Bartholomew the Great. The church of St Bartholomew the Less is just inside the hospital's main gate.
Since the late 1990s, Smithfield has seen rapid growth in the number of bars, pubs and clubs locating in the area. Nightclubs such as Fabric and Turnmills were the pioneers of the nightlife in the area. On weekday nights, this nightlife is fed by the many workers based in nearby Holborn, Clerkenwell and the City; at weekends, the nightclubs and bars with late licenses draw people into the area on their own merit.
Until 2002 Smithfield hosted the midnight start of the annual Miglia Quadrato car rally, but with the increased nightclub activity around Smithfield the UHUMLC decided move the event start to Finsbury Circus

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References

External links

References

1. Official Market Website

External links

★ Historic picture of Smithfield Market circa 1830 featuring St Bartholomew's Hospital (the centre building in the background) and the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral behind that.

★ St Bartholomew the Great church website.

★ Images of Smithfields circa 1991 black and white images of Smithfields meat market before renovations in the mid-1990s.

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★ 1958 Smithfield Market Fire - London Fire Journal