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EARLY START AT SMITHFIELDS MEAT MARKET. LONDON

May 15, 2018

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Waking up at 4.30am on a cold London morning to head over to Smithfield’s Meat Market wouldn't be everyone’s idea of a fun way to start the day, but I knew I would find interesting characters, stories and a whole lot of history there. As a non meat eater its not a place I would normally visit on a trip to London, but I was intrigued by the men and women who spend years going to bed at around 9pm and waking up at 1am, heading into the deserted city of London to trade and fill orders for the restaurants, butchers and pubs around the city and its fringes.

Many of the market traders are 2nd and 3rd generation workers at Smithfield’s. Biffo, a cutter for Absalom and Tribe has worked there for 45 years. He's seen the place change and some of the traditions fade, but there is a comradery that only exists in such places that is hard to beat.

I waited at the entrance to Barley Mow Passage opposite the market loading area and the traders took their positions in the alleyway. You have to be immune to a bit of loud banter to work there, but they were great. I shot 5 shots in 5 minutes of each subject, each one giving their undivided attention despite the heckling from across the street.

The history of Smithfield’s is not a pretty one, but it is an important part of the very essence of London and the way the city has been portrayed in literature and folklore.

One of my favourite writers, Charles Dickens, described the chaos of 1830's Smithfield’s in Oliver Twist, "The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above... the hideous and discordant din that resounded from every corner of the market; and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and dirty figures constantly running to and fro, and bursting in and out of the throng; rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene, which quite confounded the senses."

Of course that is not the Smithfield’s that we see today. Since 1868 the market has been a dead meat market and livestock are no longer slaughtered there. The then new market building designed by Sir Horace Jones, still stands there today in all its Victorian grandeur. It has since been modernised for trade inside to keep up with EU regulations, but you can still sense the way it once was as you wander down Grand Avenue, and where photographs of the market as it was line the walls. This 800 year old institution that is Smithfield’s may soon close its doors and move to the outskirts of London, as a new crossrail rail link may change the future of the site. The threat of redevelopment is always present.

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biffo

The new market building completed in 1868 was built on top of a small hill to catch the breeze. As there was no method of keeping the meat cool, the open ironwork and louvered roof allowed the air to flow freely keeping it cool inside. During WW2, a V-2 rocket hit nearby Charterhouse Street in 1945, causing damage to several market buildings and over 110 casualties. Then in 1958 the original Poultry Market building was destroyed by fire. Aside from its place on the site as a market there is an earlier time in history just as steeped in blood.

The site known as 'smooth fields' was once London’s main site for executions of criminals and anyone who revolted against the powers of the time. In 1305, the Scottish patriot William Wallace was captured by Edward 1 and put to death there. This event was marked by a plaque in Gaelic (the forbidden national language of the time) on the wall of the building. The Lord Mayor of London killed Wat Tyler who led the ‘peasants revolt’ and one of the earliest poll tax protests in Charterhouse Square.

In Tudor times, both Catholic and Protestant worshippers were executed there, depending on who held power. Queen Mary 1 ordered the burning of 200 protestant martyrs at Smithfield, but many had a last minute reprieve when during another mass execution news of her death reached the authorities, and the death warrants were rendered invalid even though the bonfires were lit. During the 16th Century death by being boiled alive was the gruesome punishment for petty criminals of the day. By The 1700’s Tyburn had taken over the mantle of the main place of execution, before it was superseded by Newgate Prison.