Food Markets in London There are many London food markets selling specialist and organic foodstuffs. So whether you're searching for unusual ingredients, or just fancy treating yourself to some home-made delicacies, take a look at some of our recommendations for London's best food markets below. Berwick Street Market Berwick Street Market has been selling fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, herbs and cheese since 1840. The market traders still shout their wares and many offer big discounts late in the afternoon. Open: Mon to Sat 9am-6pm Where: Berwick Street Market, Berwick Street, London, W1 Billingsgate Fish Market If you're an early bird, head down to Billingsgate Fish Market to browse the daily arrivals of fresh seafood from the coast and overseas. It's the largest inland fish market in the UK. Children under 12 are not allowed in the market. Open: Tues to Sat 5am-8.30am, Sun 6am-8am Where: Billingsgate Market, Trafalgar Way, London, E14 Borough Market The award-winning Borough Market is one of the largest food markets in the city, spreading under the railway arches at London Bridge. It's a gourmet's paradise, offering top quality produce and artisan foods from all over Britain and the continent. Open: Thurs 11am-5pm; Fri 12 noon-6pm and Sat 8am-5pm Where: Borough Market, Borough High Street, London, SE1 Brixton Market Brixton Market is Europe's biggest Afro-Caribbean food market. It sells unusual foods and spices, exotic fruit and vegetables and specialist meats and fish. You will also find local art, bric- a-brac, clothing and lots of reggae music! Open: Mon to Sat 8am-6pm Where: Brixton Market, Brixton Station Road, London, SW9 Leadenhall Market In the heart of the City, Leadenhall Market sells rare meats including traditional game and poultry, as well as gourmet ingredients and wines. Its cobbled walkways and glass roof make it an attractive place to shop, eat and drink. Open: Mon to Fri 7am-4pm Where: Leadenhall Market, Whittington Avenue, The City, London, EC3 Smithfield Market Meat has been bought and sold at Smithfield Market for over 800 years, and roughly 120,000 tons of produce pass through it each year. As well as meat and poultry, products such as cheese, pies and other delicatessen goods are available. Open: Mon to Fri 4am-10am Where: Smithfield Market, Charterhouse Street, London, EC1 • Wholesale markets Smithfield Market is the main meat wholesale market for London. These markets have ancient origins and connections with the City of London. Some have moved from their original locations within the city boundaries but most continue to be operated by the City of London Corporation. Their previous sites have :[2] • New Covent Garden Market is the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in the UK. With over 200 businesses, employing over 2,500 people, the Market supplies 40% of the fresh fruit & vegetables eaten outside of the home in London and is used by 75% of London florists.[3] With a large range of food businesses, including traditional wholeslaers, wholesale distributors and food processors, NCGM serves many of London’s best restaurants and hotels, cafés and bars, schools, hospitals and work places as well as independent retailers and street markets. • Borough Market is located in The Borough, just south of London Bridge. The market was established on London Bridge and is first recorded in 1014. It has been in several locations, but moved to its present site in 1870. It was owned by the City Corporation and was transferred to an independent trust in 1999.[4] It still operates as a wholesale market, but when this closes it sells sundry food items.[1] Hours Fruit wholesale 4am-8am Monday — Friday. Farmers' Market 12 noon - 5pm Friday, 10am - 4pm Saturday. • Old Billingsgate Market , a fish market, relocated in 1982[5] to Billingsgate Market, Poplar.[6] The original river facing building is now used as a hospitality and events venue. • Leadenhall Market , a food-centred market, continues to operate with many of the market spaces converted to retail outlets.[7] • Smithfield Market is a meat market that was originally a live cattle market.[8] • Spitalfields Market , a food market which relocated in 1991[9] to New Spitalfields Market, Leyton.[10] The original market site is still used as a market selling fashion, art and design, food and vintage goods and is part of a revival of the surrounding area. SMITHFIELD MARKET, LONDON From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Not to be confused with East Smithfield in Tower Hamlets. Smithfield Meat Market, seen from a neighbouring building Smithfield (also known as West Smithfield) is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London. Smithfield has a bloody history of executions of heretics and political opponents,[1] including major historical figures such as Scottish patriot William Wallace, Wat Tyler, the leader of the Peasants' Revolt, and a long series of religious reformers and dissenters. Today, the Smithfield area is dominated by the imposing, Grade II listed covered market designed by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones in the second half of the 19th century. Some of the original market buildings were abandoned for decades and faced a threat of demolition, but they were saved as the result of a public inquiry and will be part of new urban development plans aimed at preserving the historical identity of this area. Contents [hide] • 1 The area o 1.1 Religious history o 1.2 Civil history o 1.3 Today • 2 The market o 2.1 Origins o 2.2 Growth and decline: End of the cattle market o 2.3 Victorian Smithfield: Meat and poultry market o 2.4 20th century o 2.5 Today • 3 Demolition and development plans • 4 Gallery • 5 See also • 6 References • 7 External links [edit] The area West Smithfield in 1827, from John Greenwood's map of London In the Middle Ages Smithfield was a broad grassy space known as Smooth Field, just outside the London Wall, on the eastern bank of the River Fleet. Due to its access to grazing and water, it was used as the City's main livestock market for nearly 1000 years. Many toponyms in the area are associated to the trading of livestock: while some of these street names (such as "Cow Cross Street" and "Cock Lane") are still in use, many more (such as "Chick Lane", "Duck Lane", "Cow Lane", "Pheasant Court", "Goose Alley"[2]) have disappeared from the maps since the major Victorian redevelopment of the area. [edit] Religious history In 1123, the land closest to Aldersgate was granted for the foundation of St Bartholomew's Priory by Rahere; as thanks for surviving an illness. The Priory enclosed the land between Aldersgate (to the east), Long Lane (in the north) and the modern Newgate Street (to the south). The main western gate opened on Smithfield; and there was a postern to Long Lane. The Priory was also granted the rights to a weekly fair; and this was established within the outer court along the line of the modern Cloth Fair; leading to a Fair Gate.[3] A further annual fair was added in 1133, the Bartholomew Fair, one of London's pre-eminent summer fairs, opening each year on 24 August. A trading event for cloth and other goods as well as a pleasure fair, the four-day event drew crowds from all classes of English society. The fair was suppressed in 1855 by the City authorities for encouraging debauchery and public disorder.[4][5] In 1348, Walter de Manny rented 13-acre (0.05 km2) of land in Spital Croft, north of Long Lane, from the Master and Brethren of St. Bartholomew's Hospital for a graveyard and plague pit for victims of the Black Death. A chapel and hermitage were constructed, renamed New Church Haw; but in 1371, this land was granted for the foundation of the London Charterhouse, a Carthusian monastery.[6] A little to the north of the district was established the Priory of St John of Jerusalem, an order of the Knights Hospitallers. This was in existence by the mid 12th century, but not granted a charter until 1194.[7] To the north of the Hospitallers was a priory of Augustinian canonesses; the Priory of St. Mary at Clerkenwell.[8] By the end of the 14th century, the religious houses were regarded as interlopers — occupying what had previously been public open space near one of the City gates. On a number of occasions the Charterhouse was invaded and buildings destroyed. By 1405, a stout wall was built to protect the property and maintain the privacy of the order, particularly the church where women had come to worship.[6] The religious houses were dissolved in the reformation, and their lands broken up. The priory church of St John's still exists, a little to the north of Old Street, and is now the chapel of the Order of St John. The St John's gate remains, forming the boundary between Smithfield and Clerkenwell. John Houghton, the prior of the London Charterhouse, went to Thomas Cromwell with priors from two other houses to obtain an oath of supremacy that would be acceptable to their communities. They were flung in the Tower of London; and on 4 May 1535, they were taken to Tyburn and hanged — becoming the first Catholic martyrs of the Reformation. On 29 May, the remaining twenty monks and eighteen lay brothers were required to take the oath; those ten refusing were taken to Newgate Prison and left to starve.[9] With the monks expelled, Charterhouse became a private house, before the foundation by Thomas Sutton in 1611 of a charitable foundation forming the school named Charterhouse and almshouses known as Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse on the site.