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I know it's probably not worth fighting market forces, but this seems like a real shame. I lived right near the market on Turnmill Street when I had my first j
by bennyelv 4y ago
I know it's probably not worth fighting market forces, but this seems like a real shame.
I lived right near the market on Turnmill Street when I had my first job in London, and used to walk to work in the city past the market in the mornings. The traders would usually be packing up by the time I went past, but it gave a real feeling of the diversity that the London economy has. It being so close to the one of the financial centres of the world really added to that feeling. The smell, the noise, the sights of men running around with large animal parts... it really was something special and interesting.
Now it's going to be yet another set of offices, eateries... So dull compared to what it was.
- throwaway378037 4y agoI lived in Clerkenwell and the Barbican from teenage through mid 20s and I loved walking through the market. Sometimes if up early or pulling an all nighter to study I’d go walk there at 4am to see all the traders in action. This is truly a damn shame.
- flipbrad 4y agoHappy but blurry memories of emerging from a night in Fabric, watching the market workers doing their thing.
- bennyelv 4y agoHaha you and hundreds of thousands of others I expect - Turmills and Fabric closed down a long time ago now (late 00’s I think?)
- will_asouka 4y agoTurnmills gone but Fabric still reppin
- dcminter 4y agoI used to pop into SoS bar adjacent to Fabric on a Sunday morning for brunch. Somewhere I have a video of my cutlery being vibrated across the table by the bass from Fabric, so I guess they were still hard at play at 11am... Smithfields used to be where the discerning drinker went to get a very late (or very early) pint in the local pubs as they had special licenses to cater to the market workers coming off shift. By the time I lived in the city the late licensing rules had been relaxed though.
- barnabee 4y agoI suspect it could be a lot worse! - there’s going to be a museum there - keeping a lot of original structures and architecture - creating more public and pedestrian focused spaces is great Plus as I understand it this was largely driven by the fact that it no longer makes sense to have a market like this in such a central location, far from major road, rail, and sea freight connections. The new location for the market will combine several other major markets (including Billingsgate, which will have moved twice for this sort of reason) [0]. I’ll be sad to see it go, I walk past the market at least weekly, but I think it’s probably a positive change overall. [0] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/plans-smithfield-billingsgate-new-spitalfields-markets-dagenham-approved-b925764.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/plans-smithfield-bill...
- twelvechairs 4y agoIts a sadly continuing trend from the 60s - when Covent Garden was planned and 'moved' to 'New Covent Garden' and probably more significantly in Paris Les Halles was demolished and redeveloped (you can read about it in Zola's 'Le Ventre de Paris'), moving to Rungis and Villette. Its hard to go against the grain of the scale, and dullness, of modern industrial food production. Especially when real estate development is at play at the same time also. I hope the Dagenham markets will be as exciting and interesting a place to go, but fully expect them to be about as soulless as 'New Covent Garden'
- _a_a_a_ 4y agoSmithfields is already offices. I used to work there.