Smithfield Market

Welcome

Due to the pressing challenges facing Smithfield meat market, we have plans to co-locate it with Billingsgate and New Spitalfields at a new purpose-built site in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. 

We are working closely with the host Boroughs for Billingsgate and New Spitalfields to protect their futures once the sites have been vacated by the market operations. The Smithfield buildings are part of the Square Mile which is one of the reasons why we have worked up some initial concept designs to help imagine what these buildings could become should the meat market move; we are sharing these designs with you now.

Below is a video that we have prepared to present the concept designs to you. More background information can be found in the text below and you can learn more by spending time looking at our separate pages on the design principles, possible interventions, uses and public realm.

In the summer of 2020, the City of London Corporation shared initial concepts for the future of the Smithfield east and west buildings, including the rotunda, should the meat market relocate.

The initial concepts for the future of these historic buildings were developed by architects Studio Egret West and shared for comment on the Markets Programme website.

Analysis of the feedback received to these initial concepts has been carried out and is presented in the document below.

The Smithfield area is undergoing a huge amount of change with:

• Farringdon set to become one of the busiest stations in the UK when this section of the Elizabeth Line opens;
• The Museum of London relocating to various buildings to the west of the current meat market; and
• The growth of the City of London’s Culture Mile as a home for contemporary culture in the ancient heart of London’s working capital.

We have appointed architects Studio Egret West to explore the potential future of the current meat market buildings, and they are working alongside Hawkins\Brown and the Museum of London on a unified vision for the further transformation of Smithfield.

Studio Egret West are responsible for developing initial concept designs for Smithfield market to create a sustainable and accessible place of beauty and opportunity for all Londoners, the focus of this engagement.

As lead consultants, Studio Egret West are working with Alan Baxter Associates, Speirs and Major, Donald Insall Associates, Max Fordham, Greengage, PT Projects, Iceni Projects, and This Must Be The Place.

Hawkins\Brown are developing proposals for exceptional new public spaces across the whole Smithfield area, running from Farringdon Street to Aldersgate. There will be a separate engagement process for this work in due course. More on the public realm can be found here.

Smithfield market will sit alongside the new Museum of London, located in a collection of largely derelict market buildings to West end of Smithfield. The new museum will reimagine what a museum for London could and should be, attracting 2m visitors a year and capable of hosting a broader range of blockbuster exhibitions and displays the project will breathe new life into the buildings and secure their long-term future.

Led by award winning design team Stanton Williams and Asif Khan with Julian Harrap, the designs will blend the historic fabric of the buildings and world-class contemporary design, catapulting the Museum of London into one of the capitals top 10 visitor attractions.