John McAslan + Partners’ contentious £160 million Smithfield Market overhaul has been called in by the secretary of state
Communities secretary Eric Pickles will decide the future of the scheme after deeming the redevelopment to concern ‘matters of substantial regional and national controversy.’
The inquiry is expected to focus on the mixed-use scheme’s compliance with the local plan and NPPF policies on good design and conserving the historic environment.
McAslan’s scheme – involving partial demolition of Victorian buildings to create 5,700m² of shops and 21,220m² of office space – won planning from the City of London in July.
Almost a dozen bodies objected to the Henderson Global Investors-backed project, including the Twentieth Century Society, SPAB, Islington Council and SAVE Britain’s Heritage which submitted a petition with the names of almost 2,700 people opposed to the redevelopment.
A previous scheme for the site by KPF, which would have obliterated the existing buildings, was also approved (see AJ 06.05.2006) at planning committee before being famously thrown out by communities secretary Hazel Blears in 2008.
A spokesperson for developer Henderson said: ‘Henderson’s conservation led planning application for the largely disused buildings in West Smithfield is the only realistic, viable and funded scheme which can bring these historic buildings back into use and deliver a proper long term sustainable balance of redevelopment, restoration and retention.
‘This balanced approach has been supported by the City of London, English Heritage, the GLA and CABE as it retains the vast majority of the existing Victorian market buildings and brings them back into viable use.’
Clem Cecil of SAVE said: ‘We’re delighted, it shows the significance of the buildings that the secretary of state has decided to call it in a second time. We are delighted there will be a fair forum for the discussion.’
Cecil claimed the latest twist proved the buildings – which failed to win statutory protection from demolition because they were bombed damaged – should now be listed.
The SAVE director called on the inquiry to consider claims the City of London had overlooked the planning inspector’s 2008 recommendations in approving the McAslan scheme.
She said: ‘The inspector [in 2008] concluded the buildings could be preserved and become a new Spitalfields or Covent Garden and that they should be put on the open market to allow conservation-led scheme to come forward.
She continued: ‘The City of London never put it on the open market. [Therefore] it is unfounded to say this is the only viable scheme because no other scheme has come forward. This is why we need this fair forum.’
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Friday, 30 August 2013
Public inquiry should decide on Smithfield future
From Mr Alec Forshaw
Sir, Councillor Tom Sleigh’s letter (August 10) justifying the City of London Corporation planning committee’s recent decision to allow the redevelopment of the former General Market at Smithfield makes dispiriting reading. It illustrates the poor advice that committee members are fed by their officers. Cllr Sleigh states, for example, that 75 per cent of the fabric of the General Market will be kept, but he clearly has not looked very closely at the plans, which completely gut the magnificent interior of Horace Jones’s 1880s market. He states that the City needs more offices, without realising that more than 1m sq ft of offices is already in the pipeline within a few hundred metres of Smithfield, and there are vast amounts of offices consented elsewhere in the City, which no one wants to build because the demand has collapsed (for example, The Pinnacle, 100 Bishopsgate, 60-70 St Mary Axe).
Put bluntly, the City is failing to compete with other more attractive parts of London as a location where people want to work. Office rents in the West End are at least double those in the City. King’s Cross, Waterloo and Silicon Roundabout are providing vigorous competition.
Cllr Sleigh compares the approved Henderson scheme at Smithfield to Spitalfields Market, without realising that the amount of retail and café space proposed at Smithfield is tiny, nothing like enough for it to become a destination. There is a far better alternative scheme for Smithfield, promoted by the entrepreneurs who run Borough, Spitalfields, Greenwich and Camden Lock markets. They would repair the existing historic buildings (scandalously neglected by the Corporation), convert all the space to retail/market/café/ entertainment use, and pay the City Corporation a rent of £700,000 per year. This is exactly the injection of vitality that this part of the City needs, serving existing and new office workers in the area and attracting visitors.
Sadly the City Corporation are too blinkered to know what is good for them, let alone to be trusted with the conservation of historic buildings which are of London-wide if not national interest. Boris Johnson won’t want to ruffle the City’s feathers, and will no doubt rubber-stamp the office redevelopment (as he did recently with the City Corporation’s office scheme at the Fruit and Wool Exchange in Spitalfields). The secretary of state should step in and call the public inquiry that this important decision requires.
Sir, Councillor Tom Sleigh’s letter (August 10) justifying the City of London Corporation planning committee’s recent decision to allow the redevelopment of the former General Market at Smithfield makes dispiriting reading. It illustrates the poor advice that committee members are fed by their officers. Cllr Sleigh states, for example, that 75 per cent of the fabric of the General Market will be kept, but he clearly has not looked very closely at the plans, which completely gut the magnificent interior of Horace Jones’s 1880s market. He states that the City needs more offices, without realising that more than 1m sq ft of offices is already in the pipeline within a few hundred metres of Smithfield, and there are vast amounts of offices consented elsewhere in the City, which no one wants to build because the demand has collapsed (for example, The Pinnacle, 100 Bishopsgate, 60-70 St Mary Axe).
Put bluntly, the City is failing to compete with other more attractive parts of London as a location where people want to work. Office rents in the West End are at least double those in the City. King’s Cross, Waterloo and Silicon Roundabout are providing vigorous competition.
Cllr Sleigh compares the approved Henderson scheme at Smithfield to Spitalfields Market, without realising that the amount of retail and café space proposed at Smithfield is tiny, nothing like enough for it to become a destination. There is a far better alternative scheme for Smithfield, promoted by the entrepreneurs who run Borough, Spitalfields, Greenwich and Camden Lock markets. They would repair the existing historic buildings (scandalously neglected by the Corporation), convert all the space to retail/market/café/ entertainment use, and pay the City Corporation a rent of £700,000 per year. This is exactly the injection of vitality that this part of the City needs, serving existing and new office workers in the area and attracting visitors.
Sadly the City Corporation are too blinkered to know what is good for them, let alone to be trusted with the conservation of historic buildings which are of London-wide if not national interest. Boris Johnson won’t want to ruffle the City’s feathers, and will no doubt rubber-stamp the office redevelopment (as he did recently with the City Corporation’s office scheme at the Fruit and Wool Exchange in Spitalfields). The secretary of state should step in and call the public inquiry that this important decision requires.
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Masons fail in Sessions House Licence bid
Clerkenwell’s Masonic Centre tonight failed in its bid for a much-extended alcohol and late-night refreshment licence. Islington Council’s Licensing Committee decisively rejected its application.
The Masons have sold the Sessions House for £6.5M to a company controlled by a businessman who wishes to run it as an invitation-only private members’ club, with a business in private events and parties, conferences etc, to be known as “Clerkenwell House.” It would not be a night club and there would be no dancing or instant admission.
Virtually no details of the nature or operation of this proposed Club had emerged prior to the hearing, but a brochure was passed round, not previously seen by anyone, giving the proposed “rules” of the club.
The Masons claimed that the Club would be an upmarket one, reflecting the steadily upward trend of the area, and that there would be little obvious change from the current operation of the Centre, but objectors – present in force – asked what sort of Club, conference or private hire centre would need a 67% increase in alcohol sales hours, until 6.00am? How intensive would the use of the building need to be to service the £6.5M purchase price, plus the stated further £4M in repair costs? How would the rules of the Club be enforced, in particular, against private party-goers attending events in the building? “Up-market” status was no guarantee of moderate behaviour.
Sadly, there were no answers - because the application was being made by the Masons, who are moving out, and not by the as-yet undisclosed buyer, who, despite investing heavily in the project, had not so far consulted with anyone locally about his plans, and was not present to answer the many questions local residents had. Why was this? The Masons weren’t saying.
Residents stressed that they accepted that the Sessions House – as one of Clerkenwell’s landmark buildings – needed to be safeguarded by having an economic use, but not at the cost of reintroducing problems previously associated with Turnmills, Ghost, Dust and Murphi’s – some of which continue to be caused by other nearby premises.
It is not clear what the Masons will do next. They can appeal to the Magistrates, but it seems to me that a far better course would be for the new owner to introduce himself to the community, consult widely on his proposals, and then make a new application on which he can answer the resulting questions.
The Masons have sold the Sessions House for £6.5M to a company controlled by a businessman who wishes to run it as an invitation-only private members’ club, with a business in private events and parties, conferences etc, to be known as “Clerkenwell House.” It would not be a night club and there would be no dancing or instant admission.
Virtually no details of the nature or operation of this proposed Club had emerged prior to the hearing, but a brochure was passed round, not previously seen by anyone, giving the proposed “rules” of the club.
The Masons claimed that the Club would be an upmarket one, reflecting the steadily upward trend of the area, and that there would be little obvious change from the current operation of the Centre, but objectors – present in force – asked what sort of Club, conference or private hire centre would need a 67% increase in alcohol sales hours, until 6.00am? How intensive would the use of the building need to be to service the £6.5M purchase price, plus the stated further £4M in repair costs? How would the rules of the Club be enforced, in particular, against private party-goers attending events in the building? “Up-market” status was no guarantee of moderate behaviour.
Sadly, there were no answers - because the application was being made by the Masons, who are moving out, and not by the as-yet undisclosed buyer, who, despite investing heavily in the project, had not so far consulted with anyone locally about his plans, and was not present to answer the many questions local residents had. Why was this? The Masons weren’t saying.
Residents stressed that they accepted that the Sessions House – as one of Clerkenwell’s landmark buildings – needed to be safeguarded by having an economic use, but not at the cost of reintroducing problems previously associated with Turnmills, Ghost, Dust and Murphi’s – some of which continue to be caused by other nearby premises.
It is not clear what the Masons will do next. They can appeal to the Magistrates, but it seems to me that a far better course would be for the new owner to introduce himself to the community, consult widely on his proposals, and then make a new application on which he can answer the resulting questions.
Friday, 2 August 2013
Smithfield: alternative option for reviving historic London market
Plans to redevelop Smithfield could mutilate the London building - but there is an alternative
The Meat Market at Smithfield, where the General Market
and Fish Market face redevelopment
Smithfield Market in London is the greatest parade of 19th-century covered market halls in Europe. Now a storm is breaking over the buildings at the western end - the General Market, with its distinctive dome and arched galleries, and the unusual triangular Fish Market.
Henderson Global Investors, backed by the City of London Corporation, is proposing to gut almost all these market halls and replace them with office blocks looming above preserved street frontages. This would be the worst mutilation of a major Victorian building in 30 years.
Save Britain’s Heritage, the conservation group that I founded in 1975 with Simon Jenkins, Dan Cruickshank and others, is determined the site should reopen as a retail market modelled on those at Covent Garden, Greenwich and Spitalfields.
In all these places covered markets have played a key role in revitalising areas, making them attractive places to work, shop, eat and drink. Smithfield has the potential to be a still bigger magnet, as it stands above two major rail routes: Crossrail running east-west to Heathrow, and Thames Link, which connects Gatwick and Luton airports.
National preservation groups, including the Victorian Society and World Monuments Fund, backed by celebrities such as Alan Bennett and Julian Lloyd Webber, have condemned the plans, which the City Corporation voted this month to approve.
London’s markets have a long history - Smithfield dates back to the 12th century, and Covent Garden and Spitalfields to the 17th century. Originally, stalls would have been set out in the open air but rising standards of hygiene led to covered markets. Many of these structures are triumphs of Victorian engineering. As a result, London’s historic markets have always been as enjoyable to visit for their architecture as for their produce.
Yet in the brave new world of postwar town planning there was little interest in the preservation of these buildings. London’s mighty Caledonian Market was bulldozed in the 1960s. London’s Covent Garden Market would have gone too had the Greater London Council in 1973 been allowed to push through its plans for a six-lane road parallel to the Strand, flanked by office blocks and high-rise hotels, but public outcry won the day.
Billingsgate Fish Market in 1961
Save has been campaigning for endangered historic buildings for nearly 40 years, with a focus on finding lively new uses and financially viable solutions. Thirty years ago we faced a similar challenge to the present one. In 1980 the City Corporation announced plans to move Billingsgate Fish Market, located on the river Thames near London Bridge, to the Isle of Dogs and said that the £8m cost had to be paid for by replacing the handsome Victorian market building with a new office block.
Save challenged the City Corporation and together with the then Richard Rogers Partnership, we produced an alternative scheme showing how the market could be kept for public use, and offices built on the nearby lorry park. When the City finally marketed the building on the basis of our scheme it raised £22m.
In 2000, the City Corporation invited Eric Reynolds, the market entrepreneur behind the revival of Greenwich and Spitalfields Markets, to put forward proposals for Smithfield General Market, but never pursued them.
The General Market had been built as a retail market in the 1880s and Reynolds proposed it should be revived partly as a food market on the lines of Borough Market south of the Thames. Instead, the City backed an office block proposal – selling a long lease to developers Thornfield.
At a public inquiry in 2007-8, Save and English Heritage, the Government’s adviser on historic buildings, secured the rejection of Thornfield’s plans. Ministers agreed that the General Market and Fish Market should be offered for sale on the open market before demolition was considered.
Thornfield then went into administration and, instead of being offered for sale, the market buildings were transferred with Thornfield’s assets for a consideration of £50m to AIMco Re Holdings (but ultimately controlled by FREP Holdings Canada).
English Heritage now did a curious volte-face, accepting plans by Henderson Global Investors (as agents of FREP Holdings Canada) to gut the General Market that would leave just three preserved frontages on the basis that there was no viable alternative.
Eric Reynolds is now offering to invest £28m in converting the General Market and Fish Market as public markets, with different groups of stallholders present on different days.
Working with London architect John Burrell, Save also wants to revive the former railway sidings beneath the General Market. This is an amazing netherworld, akin to the water cisterns beneath Istanbul. The idea is to create a London fashion hub to host the growing number of fashion shows in the capital.
Revived historic quarters have brought enjoyment as well as economic benefits to almost every city in Europe. A recent report by architects Allies and Morrison, with Strutt & Parker, has shown that repairs to historic buildings in high streets (including market buildings) can increase footfall by up to 6 per cent.
Map of the Smithfields Market
The whole Smithfield quarter, like Covent Garden before, has flourished by a process of natural regeneration, as independent shops and restaurants have moved into the premises of departing wholesalers.
In Covent Garden the clincher was the decision to preserve and reopen the market halls. Smithfield General Market offers the opportunity for London to lead Europe in showing how another group of market halls can be a catalyst for economic revival. But this is now an issue that can only be resolved in the forum of a public inquiry.
The playwright Alan Bennett draws a telling comparison with the great medieval church next to the market. “If you go to St Bartholomew’s and then walk through Smithfield, it is like walking from one cathedral to another. You wouldn’t pull down St Bartholomew’s, nor should you pull down Smithfield. Smithfield was the scene of many martyrdoms - this would be another.”
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Smithfield market revamp ready for Crossrail and new homes
The controversial £160 million makeover of Smithfield Market will create the City of London's hottest neighbourhood with sensational new homes ready for the 2018 opening of Crossrail, says David Spittles
- Historic Smithfield Market is to become a new 'artisan food quarter', similar to Spitalfields and Borough
- The £160 million makeover will restore the market's listed Victorian exterior but sweep away the interior halls, replacing them with an internal public piazza below glass-clad office blocks
- The 2018 opening of Crossrail brings another advantage to new homes in the area with several station entrances to be built around the market
The halls of Smithfield market will become a new public piazza with food
courts, aimed at attracting crowds of Londoners and tourists, as has been
the experience at revamped Borough and Spitalfields markets
Historic Smithfield Market is set to follow the markets at Spitalfields and Borough as the Hart's Corner western end of the complex is set for a spectacular modern makeover that will bring a new “artisan” food quarter, boutiques and offices, and boost a central district that was hitherto off the radar of homebuyers and tourists.
Despite the passionate battle fought by conservation groups with big-name stars joining in, City planners have given approval for a £160 million revamp that will restore the market’s listed Victorian perimeter buildings but sweep away its market halls with their prized ironwork and vaulted roofs, replacing them with an internal public piazza below glass-clad office blocks - described as “pavilions”.
Known as Smithfield Quarter, the scheme is expected to be complete by 2018 to coincide with the opening of the neighbouring Crossrail station at Farringdon, which will be one of the capital’s key transport hubs and is due for a dramatic sevenfold increase in passengers.
The two projects are tipped to transform a commercial zone that has been part-derelict for at least a decade, yet which has been urban since the Middle Ages, with a colourful and lively history of supplying food to Londoners for 1,000 years.
Part of Smithfield Market's Victorian exterior
will survive the £160 million makeover
The run-down Victorian buildings occupy the Hart’s Corner western end of the market complex. While the battle for conservation still rages among many campaigners who oppose the changes, English Heritage is backing developer Henderson Global Investors, saying the scheme strikes “an appropriate balance between restoration and new development” and it welcomes the regeneration.
Similar controversy surrounded redevelopment of Spitalfields Market, where the offices for lawyers and bankers and a new shopping precinct dovetail with retained listed buildings. At Borough Market, now a thriving and much-visited area, a new viaduct for Thameslink trains cut through the site and entailed demolition of some original structures.
Smithfield has been supplying food to London for 1,000 years,
a tradition being reinvented by the new food quarter
But the quirky character and charm of these centuries-old sites endures through humanscale architecture, sensitive design and a mix of independent shops and stall holders. Both Borough and Spitalfields are among London’s top-10 visitor attractions and local homes have leapt in value.
Crossrail brings another dimension to Smithfield. There will be several new station entrances around the market and at least eight big mixed-use schemes are in the pipeline, including one above the listed station. An influx of office workers is likely to trigger demand for housing in an area that has been starved of new homes.
Estate agent Iain Currie was ahead of the game, opening a Thomson Currie branch in Smithfield two years ago. “There’s huge unsatisfied demand for homes in the area, and the redevelopment of the market is a big opportunity,” he says. “Smithfield is the only large wholesale market left in central London. Billingsgate and Covent Garden have moved.”
The market is surrounded by ancient St Bart’s Hospital, handsome Georgian townhouses and an open square that used to be the main site in London for the public execution of heretics and dissidents - Scottish nationalist William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered there in 1305.
The square is now lined with fashionable bars and bistros (some serving breakfasts from 4am when the market is alive with activity), while a few nightclubs offer an alternative to Soho. Lengendary club Turnmills, the first in the UK to win a 24-hour dance licence, has been bought for designer offices, a sign of the area’s changing profile. Smithfield’s boundary is part of the City’s “ring of steel” security cordon, which ensures a low crime rate.
The Green Boulevard
Architect Terry Farrell has designed a “public realm” masterplan for the area stretching from Farringdon to Tottenham Court Road, linking the two Crossrail stations with a “green boulevard”.
Sir Terry has also been commissioned by Royal Mail for the 12-acre Mount Pleasant depot, which will include a large number of homes, while Guardian Newspapers’ former headquarters in Farringdon Road is another likely residential conversion.
Analysis by Knight Frank suggests this changing City-fringe area, which includes Clerkenwell, could reach more than £1,700 a square foot by 2016, up from about £1,200 now, or at least £500,000 for a one-bedroom flat.
Spurred by Crossrail, developers are building boutique homes. “Smithfield is no longer under the influence of Clerkenwell - it is acquiring its own identity as a proper neighbourhood and people want to put down roots,” adds Iain Currie. With its medieval bones still showing and the promise of a fresh new retail quarter, it is certainly one of the City’s hottest addresses.
Friday, 21 June 2013
Former Clerkenwell court said to be haunted sold by masons
A gruesome piece of Islington’s history – a reputedly haunted building where convict were whipped, sent to their deaths and transported to Australia – has been sold.
The Old Middlesex Sessions House in Clerkenwell Green has been the home of the Central London Masonic Centre since it purchased the building for £300,000 in 1979.
The masons are moving to a new building in Lever Street, Finsbury, but the secretive group refuses to reveal how much they have sold the building for or who they’ve sold it to – though a planning application has been put into Islington Council to turn it into a private members club.
Morbid
The sale represents the latest chapter in the long and often morbid history of the former courthouse, which was built in 1780 at a cost of £13,000.
The original building held two courtrooms, dungeons and accommodation for judges – a whipping post was added outside in about 1788.
In total, the building acted as a court of law for 140 years and earned a reputation as one of the strictest in the country – in one year alone 200 convicts were transported.
Prisoners were taken from the building through tunnels in the basement to Newgate Prison, where the Old Bailey now stands, and from there down the River Fleet to transport ships on the Thames.
A complex of tunnels under the building once linked the court not just to Newgate but also Clerkenwell House of Detention, the cellars of adjacent Marx Memorial Library and The Crown and The Horseshoe pubs.
Meanwhile prisoners who were to be executed were taken round the corner to the Hangman’s Cottage in Sans Walk where portable gallows were routinely employed.
And according Alice Merino, from the Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Assocation, a legend exists of a female ghost who haunts the building - sitting on the main stairs, crying and waiting for her boyfriend, who was presumably killed or sent to a penal colony.
The Old Middlesex Sessions House in Clerkenwell Green has been the home of the Central London Masonic Centre since it purchased the building for £300,000 in 1979.
The masons are moving to a new building in Lever Street, Finsbury, but the secretive group refuses to reveal how much they have sold the building for or who they’ve sold it to – though a planning application has been put into Islington Council to turn it into a private members club.
Morbid
The sale represents the latest chapter in the long and often morbid history of the former courthouse, which was built in 1780 at a cost of £13,000.
The original building held two courtrooms, dungeons and accommodation for judges – a whipping post was added outside in about 1788.
In total, the building acted as a court of law for 140 years and earned a reputation as one of the strictest in the country – in one year alone 200 convicts were transported.
Prisoners were taken from the building through tunnels in the basement to Newgate Prison, where the Old Bailey now stands, and from there down the River Fleet to transport ships on the Thames.
A complex of tunnels under the building once linked the court not just to Newgate but also Clerkenwell House of Detention, the cellars of adjacent Marx Memorial Library and The Crown and The Horseshoe pubs.
Meanwhile prisoners who were to be executed were taken round the corner to the Hangman’s Cottage in Sans Walk where portable gallows were routinely employed.
And according Alice Merino, from the Clerkenwell and Islington Guides Assocation, a legend exists of a female ghost who haunts the building - sitting on the main stairs, crying and waiting for her boyfriend, who was presumably killed or sent to a penal colony.
Friday, 24 May 2013
Smithfield office plan ‘butchery’ - Man behind Camden Market says he can save Victorian site from demolition
Plans to save the Victorian Smithfield General Markets from demolition have been published by a heritage group and the man behind Camden Markets.
Eric Reynolds of Urban Space Management, which has also revitalised Spitalfields Market, and heritage group SAVE, have written to the City Corporation – the local authority for the buildings in Farringdon Street – arguing that it could be turned into a viable general market along the same lines as Covent Garden.
The market buildings in question were built between 1870 and 1890 and are part of a complex including the famous Smithfield Meat Market, which has been on the site for 800 years.
The market closed in the 1980s and has been empty ever since. In 2007 a public inquiry ruled that the General Market should not be demolished unless it was impossible to sell on the open market.
Now, however, it has been passed on by Deloitte – who came into ownership in the early 2000s after a previous property company went bust – to Henderson Global Investors who have put in a planning application to knock down all but the perimeter, and build a tower block on the site.
Marcus Binney, president of SAVE, based in Cowcross Street, Clerkenwell, has described the plans as the “worst mutilation of a major Victorian landmark in 30 years”.
He added that the scheme has been described as “butchery” by the Victorian Society.
In his letter to SAVE Mr Reynolds said: “We have put forward proposals showing how the General Market buildings, if retained in their present form with the internal market halls, can generate an annual income in the order of £4.8m.
“We continue to be extremely interested in acquiring and running Smithfield General Market as a retail market. We consider this can be a viable and thriving operation bringing life and added business to the area as significant as other revived markets, notably Covent Garden, Borough Markets and Spitalfields.”
Heritage group SAVE said they are working closely with Urban Space Management to bring the market back into reuse, but that English Heritage won’t look at their proposals.
English Heritage, which is supporting the Henderson scheme, says it “recognises the concerns raised by SAVE”. But the body added: “The current proposal put forward by Henderson Global Investors unites long-term sustainable restoration with the reuse of the Smithfield Western Market Buildings.
“Whilst it is true that the scale and height of the new office floors will result in moderate harm to the conservation area in certain views, these proposals have the potential to deliver economic, social and heritage benefits and it is these elements which the City of London Corporation must now balance.”
It added: “Earlier this year, English Heritage staff attended an event held by SAVE to launch their alternative proposals for Smithfield Market. At no time since that launch were we invited to discuss those proposals, until after the issuing of the latest press release which claimed we had already refused an invitation.
“We regret that SAVE finds it necessary to issue misleading information. However, English Heritage is willing to discuss their proposals and has responded to last week’s invitation.”
Eric Reynolds of Urban Space Management, which has also revitalised Spitalfields Market, and heritage group SAVE, have written to the City Corporation – the local authority for the buildings in Farringdon Street – arguing that it could be turned into a viable general market along the same lines as Covent Garden.
The market buildings in question were built between 1870 and 1890 and are part of a complex including the famous Smithfield Meat Market, which has been on the site for 800 years.
The market closed in the 1980s and has been empty ever since. In 2007 a public inquiry ruled that the General Market should not be demolished unless it was impossible to sell on the open market.
Now, however, it has been passed on by Deloitte – who came into ownership in the early 2000s after a previous property company went bust – to Henderson Global Investors who have put in a planning application to knock down all but the perimeter, and build a tower block on the site.
Marcus Binney, president of SAVE, based in Cowcross Street, Clerkenwell, has described the plans as the “worst mutilation of a major Victorian landmark in 30 years”.
He added that the scheme has been described as “butchery” by the Victorian Society.
In his letter to SAVE Mr Reynolds said: “We have put forward proposals showing how the General Market buildings, if retained in their present form with the internal market halls, can generate an annual income in the order of £4.8m.
“We continue to be extremely interested in acquiring and running Smithfield General Market as a retail market. We consider this can be a viable and thriving operation bringing life and added business to the area as significant as other revived markets, notably Covent Garden, Borough Markets and Spitalfields.”
Heritage group SAVE said they are working closely with Urban Space Management to bring the market back into reuse, but that English Heritage won’t look at their proposals.
English Heritage, which is supporting the Henderson scheme, says it “recognises the concerns raised by SAVE”. But the body added: “The current proposal put forward by Henderson Global Investors unites long-term sustainable restoration with the reuse of the Smithfield Western Market Buildings.
“Whilst it is true that the scale and height of the new office floors will result in moderate harm to the conservation area in certain views, these proposals have the potential to deliver economic, social and heritage benefits and it is these elements which the City of London Corporation must now balance.”
It added: “Earlier this year, English Heritage staff attended an event held by SAVE to launch their alternative proposals for Smithfield Market. At no time since that launch were we invited to discuss those proposals, until after the issuing of the latest press release which claimed we had already refused an invitation.
“We regret that SAVE finds it necessary to issue misleading information. However, English Heritage is willing to discuss their proposals and has responded to last week’s invitation.”
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