The City of London has voted to close the centuries-old Smithfield meat market, after scrapping a planned £800mn move because of cost overruns.
The City of London Corporation, the local government for the business district, said on Tuesday the independent traders who sell meat at Smithfield — and fish at Billingsgate market — will receive “financial support” to relocate to new locations of their choosing.
The decision paves the way for the end of trading at Smithfield, near Farringdon in central London, which has been home to livestock and meat markets since the 12th century.
Smithfield and Billingsgate had been set to move to a new, modern facility in Dagenham. The corporation shelved the plan earlier this month. The two markets will stay open until at least 2028 to allow traders to move.
“Project costs have risen due to a number of external factors, including inflation and the increasing cost of construction which have made the move unaffordable,” the City corporation said in a statement on Tuesday.
It has spent £308mn out of the project’s more than £800mn budget, largely to buy and begin preparing the Dagenham site, which it acquired in 2018 after decades of debate over the market’s future.
The City said it would work with the local borough on an alternative use for the site that will “deliver regeneration and high-quality jobs for local people”.
Closing the market will save the City hundreds of millions and free up a valuable site in central London for redevelopment.
Chris Hayward, the city’s policy chair, said the corporation was “stepping back” from operating the markets itself, but was “committed to making sure [traders] have the financial support and guidance they need to transition seamlessly and successfully to new locations”.
The City’s Court of Common Council, its main decision-making body, approved the decision in a vote on Tuesday.
Located just outside the City’s historic walls, Smithfield was the site of livestock trading for centuries before it became a meat market in the Victorian period, when bringing livestock into the growing city became impractical. The current Grade II listed market buildings were built in the 1860s.
The City has invested in moving the Museum of London from its former home near the Barbican into the one-time general and poultry market buildings next to the meat market.
Billingsgate moved to a new site near Canary Wharf in the 1980s. The City will have to ask the UK parliament to pass a bill to end its legal responsibility to host a market.
