Ealier proposals for the site had been drawn up by Stanton Williams as part of a wider masterplan, before the City of London Corporation decided to put the project back out to the market. The local authority has now signed a partnership deal with developer General Projects and Travelex founder Lloyd Dorfman’s Esselco Group.

Heatherwick Studio’s involvement on the two phase revamp of the collection of Victorian-era market, storage and engine buildings within Smithfield Market, was announced as part of this new partnership earlier this week (20 April).

The first stage will deliver a food market – set to open in early 2028 – and the second will create a ‘boutique lifestyle hotel’ alongside ground-floor space for shops and restaurants and a pocket park at the heart of the development, intended for completion by 2030.

The site is next to the new £437 million home of the Museum of London, which is being relocated to the old Smithfield Market, where it will be known as London Museum. The cultural destination is due to open its permanent galleries in the General Market at the end of the year.

Working with Asif Khan and Julian Harrap Architects, the huge scheme is being led by Stanton Williams, which previously drew up plans for the Annexe Buildings as part of a masterplan. The wider vision still includes plans for the museum to extend into space underneath the neighbouring Annexe.

The City of London said that the new plans will support the City’s cultural and visitor economy and create new public spaces and employment opportunities, while forming part of the City authority’s Destination City Growth strategy to encourage activity in the Square Mile beyond the working week.

At the centre of the Annexe development is the Fish Market building, designed by Horace Jones in 1886. General Projects  said its ambition was to preserve the character of the surviving Victorian architecture while giving the site a new role which respects its ‘grit, drama and authenticity, rather than smoothing them away’.

Stanton Williams and Julian Harrap Architects have already overseen the completion of external and roof conservation work on the Fish Market building and the adjoining Red House.

The Smithfield Annexe has already seen some renovation work started under designs by Stanton Williams and Julian Harrap Architects

The Red House and the next door Engine House buildings will become a hotel, while the new park will replace a disused service area and serve as a public space for events, art and live performances .

Eliot Postma, partner and group leader at Heatherwick Studio said: ‘West Smithfield Annexe has always been a place of making, exchange and public life, so it’s a real privilege for us to be involved in imagining its future.

‘This is a project rooted in London’s heritage but looking firmly forward. We’re excited about what it could become.’

The planned food market has been inspired by the historic references to Smithfield as the ‘kitchen of the universe’, and will feature stalls which ‘represent the best of independent London and showcase the diversity of cuisine, culture and history across the City’, according to the City of London.

Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said: ‘Smithfield has always been London’s kitchen, a place of trade, energy and life for over a thousand years. The Annexe redevelopment honours that history while giving this remarkable corner of the Square Mile a bold new future.

‘Alongside the new London Museum and the Barbican, it will help make Smithfield somewhere Londoners and visitors come back to again and again, not for one particular reason, but because there is always something extraordinary to discover. This is Destination City in action.’

The Annexe development will form part of the 30-year Smithfield/Barbican masterplan, which includes the repurposing of the Meat Market buildings, the revamp of the Barbican Centre by Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio,.

The Annexe in Smithfield Market