The UK local authority on Tuesday (26) voted to close the city's historic wholesale meat market from 2028, ushering the ending of the trading era that started back in the 1100s.
Smithfield Market, near St Paul's Cathedral, has endured years of uncertainty and was facing an £800-million move to a new purpose-built site in the eastern suburb of Dagenham. But members of the City of London Corporation approved a decision to shelve the project, ending 900 years of history.
Smithfield Market is the largest wholesale meat market in the UK and one of the biggest in Europe. The current iteration of the market has been trading at the site since the 1860s. Prior to that it was a livestock market, which dated back to the medieval period.
Work has already begun on turning this site into a new cultural and commercial hub, which includes the new London Museum, BBC reported.
The Billingsgate fish market had also been slated to move from its home near the Canary Wharf development in east London to Dagenham.
Billingsgate is the largest inland fish market in the UK, with an average of 25,000 tonnes of fish and fish products sold there every year. The original market first traded in Lower Thames Street in the City in 1327, before moving to its current site in Poplar, east London, in 1982.
This site has now been earmarked to provide thousands of new homes.
In a statement, the corporation said traders, who work through the night to supply butchers, hotels and restaurants across the capital, could continue operations until "at least 2028".
"The decision reflects a careful balance between respecting the history of Smithfield and Billingsgate Markets and managing resources for this project responsibly," the local authority said.
"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."
Speaking to BBC London before the decision was announced, one trader, whose family has sold fish at the site for 70 years, said he had been forced to take the compensation offer or "leave with nothing", adding, "For what we’ve been offered to vacate the premises, I can’t go and reinstate myself somewhere else.
The trader also warned that the decision will leave London "without a fish supplier" unless another fish market of the same scale comes up.
