Now demolished and site due for construction of a 31 storey building comprising of basement parking, retail on ground and first floor, medical centre on second and third floor, 264 residential units on the upper floors and telecommunications mast above.

To my dismay I stumbled on this building work on the old Stables Market. The old antiques/2nd hand clothes area has now been bulldozed to make way for a new market development but looking at the drawings of the new development it looks like the area is going to lose its uniqueness and look like many other shopping developments. I bet the rents will be higher too thus preventing some small traders from returning to the area. I have spent many hours wandering around the old market and the stalls in its cavernous musty railway arches.

These buildings were recently described to SAVE BRITAIN'S HERITAGE by the City of London's Surveyor as 'rather cheap and nasty' and that they could do rather better for the area by knocking them down and starting again"

The empty buildings are examples of the work of Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones. The market was bombed during the blitz and repaired during the 1950's. However, after surviving the Germans the building are under threat of demolition from modern day developers who wish to build office blocks.

Unnecessary need for more offices? - there is currently 2.5 million square feet of empty office space within a mile of the market and a further 22.5 million square feet lying vacant across London.

Smithfield Market was haunted in the middle of the 17th century by the ghost of a lawyer named Mallet, who is said to have died in 1654 after eating poisoned meat. Described as being dressed in the gown of a lawyer and wearing long-pointed shoes, he appeared in the market every Saturday night between the hours of nine o’clock and midnight, tormenting the butchers by pulling joints of meat off their stalls. Some of the braver of these men attempted to drive the ghost away with their knives and meat-cleavers but could feel “nothing but aire”. It would appear that the ghost was not absolutely certain that the affected meat had come from Smithfield however, because after terrorising the butchers at Smithfield he often moved on to Whitechapel and Eastcheap, where he similarly angered the butchers there.

The Secretary of State in August 2008 announced that conservation area consent should be refused for the demolition of the Smithfield General Market Building and planning permissions also be refused for the proposed replacement scheme. In doing so, the Secretary of State has accepted the evidence of English Heritage that the General Market Building could and should be re-used. English Heritage said: “This decision proves that the historic environment is about much more than

just individual listed buildings - this is an acknowledgement of the many unlisted - but not unloved - buildings which collectively create a powerful sense of place and positively contribute to the fabric of the city…. We are disappointed that the Corporation of London's good record for conservation of listed buildings has been undermined by their willingness to neglect these historic buildings and in doing so, disregarded national planning policy. We now expect the Corporation to take the opportunity to bring forward a creative scheme for the repair and re-use of the General Market Building, Annex and Red House Cold Store, to enable them to fully contribute to the important conservation area in which they sit.”

This Hall originally opened in the 1930's has apparently just been re-built into a state-of-the-art market hall, designed by top retail designers but has retained its independent market feel and hosts butchers, fishmongers, pie n mash shop, etc.

First came the Huguenots, then the Irish, the Jews, the Maltese and more recently the Pakistani, Somali and Bangladeshi communities. Throughout its history it has nurtured a rich ecology of small gatherings, of chapels, meeting houses, synagogues, chevras, friendly and mutual societies. Spitalfields' stock of social capital is high and its key currency is solidarity. But the Corporation of London wants to turn Spitalfields into "London's exciting new financial quarter...." The pictures above were taken before the old buildings were modernised and the area is now called a market but is quite pricey arts & crafts with chain restaurants in the buildings and without the randomness of a real market.

In 1682, King Charles II granted a silk thrower, a Royal Charter that gave him the right to hold a market in or near Spital Square. For the next 200 years, the market traded from a collection of sheds and stalls, doing its best to cope with London’s growing appetite for fresh fruit and vegetables. As time went by, it became a centre for the sale of home-grown produce, which was being traded there six days a week. By 1876, a former market porter bought a short lease on the market and started work on a new market building, which was completed in 1893 at a cost of £80,000.

With no room for the expansion it so badly needed, the market was forced to move and in May 1991, it opened its doors at its new location in Leyton. These modern industrial units are functional but New Spitalfields certainly has no charm......

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