New home for historic City of London markets

Image: Smithfield Market viewed from West Smithfield, courtesy Future Cities Forum

Billingsgate and Smithfield Market Traders, the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority (GLA) have identified a preferred new site in the Royal Docks in Newham where both markets can locate together, the Corporation of London reports:

'The relocation of the historic wholesale markets to the proposed new site of Albert Island (located just to the east of London City Airport) fulfils the shared ambition of the City of London Corporation and Traders for a new site to be found within the M25, first set out in December 2024. The move is subject to the successful passage of the Parliamentary Bill to provide for the cessation of the markets at their current sites. Planning permission from Newham Borough Council will also be needed to enable the markets to operate on site.

'The Royal Docks is owned by the GLA and has planning consent for c750,000sqft of development and a new boatyard for London. The Royal Docks is London’s only Enterprise Zone and is part of the Royal Docks & Beckton Riverside Opportunity Area.

'The Royal Docks Team (a joint initiative between the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Newham) has been working with the City Corporation to explore the potential to relocate the markets to Albert Island. It is estimated that the move will bring circa. £750m in local expenditure, over 2,200 jobs and £130m GVA to Newham and more than double those numbers in economic benefits to the wider UK economy over a 30-year period.

'Since the City of London Corporation’s elected members voted last year to end the planned move of Billingsgate and Smithfield markets to a new location in Dagenham, the City Corporation has been supporting Traders by facilitating discussions with developers and landowners. Increasing traffic restrictions, congestion and other practical considerations, such as constrained sites - and in the case of Smithfield, a Grade II* listed site - mean Traders are unable to grow their businesses by staying in their present locations and so are keen to move.

'Most of the Traders from both markets have agreed to move together to a new site with the remaining intending to transfer their business to others, ensuring that 100% of trade will continue.

'Securing the future of these centuries old markets, will not only protect food security for London and the Southeast, but also thousands of jobs in ports across the UK, as well as the future of existing jobs, by creating new opportunities in the British fishing industry and beyond. Additionally, both markets will continue to operate their respective apprenticeship programmes, the Smithfield Apprenticeship Scheme and the Billingsgate Seafood Training School, providing jobs targeted at young people.

'A further commitment as part of the move will see the delivery of a new onsite food school. Local communities across the London Borough of Newham and the South-East will benefit from the inclusion of a food skills, education and training programme to train tomorrow’s market Traders and providing them with the skills required to develop future butchers, fishmongers and fruiterers.

'The markets will continue at Smithfield and Billingsgate until at least 2028, giving time for Traders to plan and smoothly transition to new sites, subject to the Bill being passed.

'The markets will be known as New Billingsgate and New Smithfield respectively once they relocate.'

Image: CGI of Albert Island in the Royal Docks - courtesy AlbertIsland.london

The Museum of London is currently re-purposing part of Smithfield's historic market buildings into the London Museum. Director Sharon Ament, who has contributed to several Future Cities Forums, described the making of a new model museum at our 'Cultural Cities' event hosted at the Barbican in June 2025:

'We didn't set out to create a new model of a museum but it has happened within the response to it. The shape of it has been influenced by the different buildings of the site, the original Smithfield Market. We had to adjust ourselves to it and exploit the physical nature of those buildings. It has nine entrances with big public spaces that are not overwhelming, enabling the public to come in and engage and buy something. This is in our ground floor gallery called 'Our time', which covers one hundred years and this is where Londoners can come together. Time is our intellectual organising principle. There is a basement cold store, open trading floors, slopes for horse and cart deliveries and our gallery names like deep time, past time, future imagined time etc will correspond to these physical layers. In terms of presentation, it is something that goes beyond co-curation and diminishes the barriers in a museum. It does away with the previous ideas of owning intellectual content with a new democratisation of it. That's different from the kind of communication you might find on social media. It is about facilitating deep insight and expertise from people and will help London think about itself. You do not need to be a curator to do that.

'In terms of being inclusive, the place itself and the location serves that. It is sited on a transport hub and therefore very accessible. It was built for market staff to come and go really quickly, designed like that by the Victorians originally on sustainability terms. We now need to think how we heat and cool it. There are passive heating systems put in by the Victorians, but we are going to be more demanding of our visitors than that. We are going to let people know if it is a jumper or t-shirt day, asking them to be more active, including their comfort levels.'

Above: Smithfield General Market building undergoing conversion into the London Museum in 2023 with City of London dragon boundary marker watching over the Farringdon Road from the Holborn Viaduct (courtesy Future Cities Forum)