Historic Smithfield and Billingsgate markets find new home in Docklands

A butcher prepares to throw a joint of meat to a customer at the annual Christmas Eve meat auction at Smithfield meat market, London. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

After almost eight centuries at the heart of life in the capital and a period where their future lay in doubt, the historic Smithfield and Billingsgate markets are to get a new home on a former industrial site in east London.

The proposal by the City of London Corporation – the governing body that runs both sites as well as the Square Mile financial district – would relocate the markets to Newham’s Royal Docks.