{"id":611528,"date":"2025-12-04T11:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/611528\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T11:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:21:19","slug":"two-of-londons-oldest-and-most-iconic-food-markets-could-be-saved-from-closure-as-plans-have-been-revealed-to-relocate-them-to-a-new-site-in-the-royal-docks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/611528\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Of London\u2019s Oldest And Most Iconic Food Markets Could Be Saved From Closure As Plans Have Been Revealed To Relocate Them To A New Site In The Royal Docks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: I Wei Huang, via Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

Having been filling the rumbling tummies of hungry Londoners for the best part of a millennium, Smithfield and Billingsgate Markets<\/strong> are two vital cogs in the capital city<\/a>\u2018s machine. And so the news of their potential closure<\/a> was met with some disappointment last year, to say the least. But things are looking up, folks.<\/p>\n

This week, the City of London Corporation<\/strong> (who currently operate both markets) revealed that they had been scheming and planning alongside the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Newham Council<\/strong> over the past year to find a new home for the historic markets<\/a>. And the prospective new site for their relocation has just been confirmed.<\/p>\n

The new site in question is a 25-acre unoccupied plot of land near London City Airport. Albert Island<\/strong> is the name of the site, and it\u2019s perched at the eastern end of the Royal Docks in Newham<\/strong> and owned by the GLA.<\/p>\n

\"AnCredit: City of London Corporation Smithfield Market and Billingsgate Market <\/p>\n

Smithfield Market is the oldest wholesale meat market in the UK<\/strong>. The market in its current form has been trading since the 1860s, but its roots date all the way back to the medieval period. Billingsgate Market is the largest inland fish market in the country<\/strong>, and has origins that date back over 1000 years. The current Smithfield Market site is being transformed into a cultural space (complete with the new London Museum<\/a>), and the Billingsgate site is being turned into flats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been estimated that the relocation of both markets could generate around \u00a3750 million<\/strong> in local expenditure and create over 2,200 jobs. According to the City of London Corporation, most traders have agreed to move to the new site, which could be up and running by 2028. The relocated markets would be named New Billingsgate and New Smithfield<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The move is yet to be confirmed, and there are still a fair few hoops that\u2019ll need to be jumped through before anything is set in stone. Planning permission from Newham Council<\/strong> will need to be granted, and a Parliamentary Bill to cease trading will need to be secured, too.<\/p>\n

\"BillingsgateCredit: Londontog, via Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Chairman of Smithfield Markets Traders\u2019 Association, Greg Lawrence<\/strong>, said: \u201cIdentifying a preferred new site marks a significant step forward \u2013 and we\u2019re well ahead of where we thought we\u2019d be by Christmas. This location offers Traders the space and opportunity to grow our businesses while continuing to serve customers across London and the South East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE<\/strong>, said: \u201cBillingsgate and Smithfield are two of the great historic markets that have been feeding Londoners for hundreds of years, and internationally renowned. For Newham to potentially be the new home for the markets over at our majestic Royal Docks would be a great honour and testament to the vision we have for our borough as a place to do business and drive inclusive growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: I Wei Huang, via Shutterstock Save Having been filling the rumbling tummies of hungry Londoners for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,46301,393,10810,4884,17009,257,10763,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-611528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-british-food","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fish","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-local-trip","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-trip-travel","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115661039585570377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}