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.
The announcement comes just over a year after the corporation voted to permanently close Smithfield meat market and Billingsgate fish market when it pulled the plug on a planned £740m relocation to Dagenham, blaming rising costs.
At the time, it said it was no longer planning to build a joint replacement location, a decision that would have spelled the end of centuries of meat and fish trading in the capital. Instead, it had offered financial support to the traders to help them find new premises.
Now the corporation has identified Albert Island, a brownfield site in Royal Docks owned by the Greater London Authority (GLA) earmarked for regeneration, for the move. Despite being next to London City airport’s runway, the 10 hectare (25 acre) site is little-known, even to Londoners.
The corporation estimates the project would generate £750m in local expenditure and bring 2,200 jobs to Newham, one of the capital’s most deprived boroughs. Other development plans for the site include a new shipyard to service and repair Thames riverboats, as well as a marina.
Greg Lawrence, chair of Smithfield market traders’ association, said the announcement was a “significant step forward”.
Lawrence has worked at the meat market since 1966, when he was 16. He said: “This location offers traders the space and opportunity to grow our businesses while continuing to serve customers across London and the south-east.”
The corporation, which is exceptionally wealthy compared with typical UK local authorities, faced a backlash over its plans to permanently close the ancient food markets and build on the sites. In June, the corporation said it had established a regeneration team to help find a new location for the meat and fish markets.
While the corporation owns and runs Smithfield in central London and Billingsgate near Canary Wharf in east London, their long history means they were established by acts of parliament that fix them to the existing sites.
They can only be closed when parliament passes the private bill, deposited by the corporation, which would repeal the legislation and allow the land to be used for other purposes.
The Guardian had previously highlighted the worries of a group of east London fishmongers from Ridley Road market in Hackney, east London, who shop daily at Billingsgate and objected to its closure, saying it would put them out of business. The intervention threatened to disrupt the passing of the corporation’s private bill through parliament.
Alicia Weston, the founder of the food poverty charity Bags of Taste, who speaks on behalf of the fishmongers, welcomed the news of the Albert Island proposal.
“This is the best we could have hoped for, because it’s not too far from the current site,” she said. “What was absolutely key for the fishmongers was that there should be a replacement market.”
There has been a food market around Smithfield – close to Farringdon train station – for more than 800 years. Two buildings on the site are being redeveloped, and the London Museum is scheduled to open there in late 2026.
Billingsgate, which has been located next to the Canary Wharf financial district since 1982, has been earmarked for housing.
While the volumes of produce sold at the two markets have declined over the past century amid the rise of supermarkets, they still account for roughly 10% of the meat and fish consumed in London and the south-east, according to an independent report commissioned by the corporation.
The traders have been told they can continue in their current locations until at least 2028, and the corporation said most had previously agreed to move to a new site.
However, a new markets complex on Albert Island is still some way off. “There’s a lot more to do – and a developer to be agreed – but this is undeniable progress,” said the corporation’s policy chair, Chris Hayward.
The corporation said it had signed an agreement with the GLA to work on the Albert Island proposals, although market operations at the site would need planning permission from Newham council.
The new markets – which would be known as New Smithfield and New Billingsgate – would continue to operate their apprenticeship programmes, the corporation said, while a new food school would also be built on site.
