Smithfield Market

Today, Monday 25 February 2019, a new record was set; the daytime high in London was 20.6C, the highest temperature ever recorded in a winter month. Although when I set ofp for a meeting near Liverpool Street Station at around 9am there was still a light frost on the back lawn and roof tiles, by lunchtime it was t-shirt weather. London, as ever, beckons my footsteps, after my meeting, I made my way from Liverpool Street to Chancery Lane via the Barbican and Smithfield Market. This is familiar ground; while studying at The City University in the early 1980s, I'd often walk around the area between Farringdon and St Pauls; in those days Smithfields was far busier; in the mornings it would be a rare place in the UK where pubs would be open (slaking the thirst of butchers who'd worked all night).

One of the London's great wholesale markets, Smithfields is still in business selling meat - the other big markets (Covent Garden - fruit, vegetables, flowers - and Billingsgate - fish) having moved to new locations in 1974 and 1982 respectively. Meat has been sold in Smithfields for over a thousand years (the name comes from 'smooth fields'). Drovers would herd their livestock here for slaughter and butchery; as the population of London exploded in Victorian times, so the process of providing meat for its inhabitants became more regulated and sanitary. The buildings below date from 1868; by then meat processing had become properly industrialised. Live animals no longer entered the market; carcasses arrived by train at an underground station and taken to cold stores before being brought up by lifts to be butchered for retail at the many stalls on either side of the Grand Avenue (below). This is the Central Market, divided by the Grand Avenue into the East and West Markets.

Below: the west end of the General Market. Below this now abandoned building is the Snow Hill Tunnel; work is now underway here on the CrossRail project (which seems to be dragging on without end - Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road, Paddington, Ealing - along the line the hi-visibility community are getting on with it, at the same leisurely pace that befits all public-sector infrastructure projects from building a simple viaduct over the railway line at W-wa Jeziorki to burrowing under the centre of London. [Incidentally it's worth comparing London's great markets with Warsaw's Hala Gwardii and Hala Mirowska.]

Below: a derelict covered crossing at the General Market; I wonder whether it will be restored, maintaining at least the decorative elements of the facade.

Below: in the Great Days of Victorian Smithfields, this cobbled ramp led from street level to the platforms of the underground railway station and the massive cold-stores under the markets. Today, much of the space beneath the market buildings is given over to car parking, to which the ramp gives access. Smithfield Rotunda Garden lies on top of the brick retaining wall, today full of office workers enjoying the heat of a winter's lunchtime.

Traditional fare (such as a sausage-and-bacon bap) is available to market workers and employees of financial corporations alike. I remember these establishments in the early 1980s, popping in for breakfast on my way to lectures - they would be full of butchers in bloodied overalls having a snack before going home to sleep off the night shift.

Below: between Liverpool Street and the Barbican Centre - Finsbury Circus. This building stands on the corner of the eastern approach to the circus and Blomfield Street.

My regular walks between the City of London and the West End offer an almost endless permutation of routes, taking in so many splendid sights, such great architecture. I am very cross at the Germans who voted for Hitler in the 1930s, leading to the massive damage visited upon London by the Luftwaffe - and at the property developers of the 1960s who razed many fine buildings to make way for nondescript architecture. Today, London cherishes its heritage far more - facades tend to be left with new buildings adapted to retain the look of the old.

I love exploring the passages the run between London streets - this is Ely Court (left), between Ely Place and Hatton Garden (London's street for jewellery and diamonds). On Ely Court I stumble upon the Ye Olde Mitre pub, which English Heritage lists as having been built in 1773 (not 1546 as claimed by the pub). Anyway, it has great character - I popped in for a swift half of Fuller's Oliver's Island golden ale. Now brewed by Asahi (which bought Fuller's brewing business for £250m earlier this year). As I sat down to sup my ale, I noted a small group of (I presume) bankers having a farewell drink with a Dutch colleague who was leaving London due to Brexit - a subject of bitter mockery and regret.

This time last year:
Mid-winter in late February
(from -15C in Warsaw last year to 21C in London this!)

This time two years ago:
Ten years of digital photography

This time three years ago:
Between atheism and creationism

This time four years ago:
A peek into the Afterlife
[the best piece I've written about my spiritual quest]

This time five years ago:
The new dupes of Moscow

This time six years ago:
Late-winter commuting, Jeziorki

This time seven years ago:
My Nikon D80 five years on

This time eight years ago:
My Nikon D80 four years on

This time ten years ago:
Nikon D80 two years on

This time 11 years ago:
Nikon D80 one year on