Smithfield Market, London
Catherine McGuinness, Policy Chair at the City of London Corporation, said:
“Smithfield has contributed to London life for more than eight centuries, and for over 150 years these much-loved buildings have been home to Smithfield Market.
“We want to make sure that, if the meat market relocates, the buildings have a vibrant future within Culture Mile, ensuring that they flourish, and that their legacy is assured.
“This is a significant step forward in our journey to deliver on our wider ambition to create a vibrant and new world-class Culture Mile at the heart of the historic Square Mile.”
Due to pressing challenges facing Smithfield meat market, the City of London have developed plans to co-locate it with Billingsgate and New Spitalfields at a new purpose-built site in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. This requires planning permission and a new Private Bill.
Studio Egret West were appointed to develop initial concept designs for Smithfield market to create a sustainable and accessible place of beauty and opportunity for all Londoners. As lead consultants, Studio Egret West are working with Alan Baxter Associates, Speirs and Major, Donald Inall Associates, Max Fordham, Greengage, PT Projects, Iceni Projects, and This Must Be The Place.
The emerging concept designs show the meat market — currently home to dozens of stalls and temperature-controlled storage units — becoming the location for a “fresh produce food trading hall” and “flexible exhibition” rooms. They also show how its basement could be transformed to house “food research labs”, “seed banks” and a “music and conference space”.
David West, director at Studio Egret West, said the market “could be transformed in a highly flexible and imaginative way, creating a place for meeting and making, growing and exchanging, exposition and entertainment”.
