City of London votes on closing Smithfield meat market

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The City of London will on Tuesday vote on whether to close the historic Smithfield meat market rather than press ahead with an £800mn plan to relocate it to east London.

The City of London Corporation, the local government for the business district, earlier this month shelved plans to move Smithfield — and Billingsgate fish market — to a new, modern facility in Dagenham.

The corporation had said it needed to review the “financial sustainability” of the planned move. It has spent £308mn of the project’s more than £800mn budget, largely to buy and begin preparing the Dagenham site.

The Court of Common Council, the main decision-making body for the corporation, has convened a meeting to vote on a recommendation to scrap the relocation plan and close the 900-year-old meat market instead, according to people familiar with the matter.

A number of members of the council have voiced opposition to the move, which was first reported by the Times newspaper.

Closing the market will save the City hundreds of millions on the project, and free up a valuable site in central London for redevelopment, even though the corporation will probably have to negotiate substantial compensation for the market’s traders.

Located just outside the City’s historic walls, Smithfield has been the site of livestock trading since the 1100s. 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. A City spokesperson said no decision had been made. Plans to move or close the markets require approval from the UK parliament.

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