Table of Contents
History of Smithfield
Wikipedia
Overview book and articles
- Smithfield: Past, Present and Future by Alec Forshaw
Symbols and Secrets blog by The City Gent
- ‘Smooth Field’ – a wander around Smithfield September 2020
- A more cheerful wander around Smithfield September 2020
- Smithfield stories (some a bit gruesome) January 2022
- Founders and Farmers, Ironmongers and Martyrs – another wander around Smithfield. September 2022
- Another look at Smithfield pubs April 2023
Other blogs to review
Other articles
- Hidden gems of West Smithfield - Lookup London
- Smithfield’s Bloody Past by Gillian Tindall in Spitalfields Life 2016
- A potted history of Smithfield by John Morgan in the Clerkenwell Post. From Internet archive
- Smithfield in British History online - Walter Thornbury 1878
Museum of London articles and videos
Smithfield Past, Present and Future Smithfield Market, in the City of London, has a rich history and a bright future. Watch our three-part video series on the history of West Smithfield as a centre of the city's meat trade, through the chaos of war and decades of decline, and its possible future as the new home for the Museum of London.
Smithfield Market: monks, meat and merriment The Museum of London is planning a move to West Smithfield, into the magnificent Victorian market buildings. Smithfield has been a central point in the city for many centuries- three of our curators talk us through the rich history of Smithfield, future home of the Museum of London.
See also
Videos
- Smithfield Market: Executions, Body Snatchers, and Bloody Mary. Sinead, a tour guide with Free Tours by Foot London, takes you on a walk around Smithfield Market to show you the location of the execution of William Wallace.
- Smithfield: We’ll Meat again - Jago Hazzard. Good intro to the area with additional images
- Meat, Museums and Malarky: Trouble at Smithfield - Jago Hazzard about redevelopment and City dispute with traders
- London’s 1000 Year Old Night MEAT Market - SMITHFIELD’S. - lot of shots inside the market at night
- 1970s London St Barts and market - silent Thames TV footage
- Executions, butchery & medicine at Smithfield with Richard Barnett | Medical London. Richard Barnett explains the history of Smithfield - a meat market, a place of numerous public executions and St Bartholomew's hospital. Includes story of the foundation of the hospital.
- Smithfield 150 highlights - London's biggest birthday party - compilation from the celebration
- Where Are London's Execution Sites? Look Up London
Excerpts from Clerkewell 101
7 Smithfield is a corruption of the medieval ‘smooth field’ (it was one of the few dry areas in swampy London). In the past it was one of the most vibrant and cruel places in London, where huge crowds attended the four day St Bartholomew Fair, jousting tournaments and public executions and burnings.
8 Smithfield Meat Market has been operating almost constantly for over 800 years. In the Middle Ages, Smithfield was a wide grassy space, with access to grazing and water from the River Fleet. Until 1855 cattle, sheep and horses were brought into Smithfield to be sold or slaughtered. In June 1855 the live market was closed due to complaints about the chaos and mess caused by driving live cattle to what was now central London. After 1886, cattle were slaughtered elsewhere and the meat brought to the newly-erected Smithfield Meat Market by train.
9 William Wallace, Scotland’s ‘Braveheart’, was hanged, drawn and quartered in Smithfield in 1305 after having been dragged through the streets from The Tower of London by horses (on a rack of wood, not directly on the cobbles – that would have really hurt). During her reign in the 1550s, Queen Mary had 227 people, mainly Protestant martyrs, burnt or boiled alive here. The martyrs and Wallace are each commemorated by a plaque on the wall of St Bartholomew’s Church. Wallace’s is often adorned with flowers, Scottish flags, even the occasional can of Tennent’s Lager.
10 Woodville Vs The Bastard. On June 11th and 12th, 1467 the most spectacular tournament of the age was held at Smithfield in London. King Edward IV declared a public holiday. Anthony Woodville, the Queen’s brother, was selected as the English challenger. Woodville’s opponent was Antoine, the Bastard of Burgundy. He was publicly acknowledged as the natural son of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and was one of the most renowned jousters in Europe. The challenge on the first day saw Woodville knock ‘The Bastard’ and his horse to the ground, killing the horse. The following day saw foot combat so ferocious and lengthy that King Edward stopped the fight before there was a death, announcing it a valiant draw.
11 Pre-Margaret Thatcher Poll Tax Riots. In 1381 there were violent protests about a poll tax. During this unrest, Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, was confronted by the Lord Mayor and the 14-year-old King Richard II in Smithfield. Tyler was injured and then beheaded following a scuffle.
12 On April 5th, 1531 Richard Rouse, the cook to the Bishop of Rochester, was boiled alive at Smithfield. A fitting end for a chef. He had been found guilty of accidentally murdering several colleagues while attempting to poison his employer. It is said that Anne Boleyn and her family had bribed Rouse to poison the soup, as the Bishop was openly critical of Henry VIII saying it was against God’s law for the King to be the Head of the Church of England. He was the first victim of legal boiling in England. According to an eyewitness, “He roared mighty loud”.
13 Wife-selling was a genuine way of divorcing for those who couldn’t afford proper legal procedures. In 1797 The Oracle and Public Advertiser reported: ‘In Smithfield Market, another anti-matrimonial bargain has taken place in this mart of living stock. The price of ladies has risen here; a man sold his wife yesterday for three guineas and a half.’
14 The current distinctive meat market was designed by Horace Jones and opened in 1868, so has just celebrated its 150th birthday. Five miles of iron girders were used in its construction. The building had refrigerated storage and rail links to accommodate meat that was slaughtered elsewhere and brought in by train. Jones went on to design Billingsgate and Leadenhall Markets and finally Tower Bridge, designed in 1894.
19 By the middle of the 19th century 220,000 head of live cattle and 1,500,000 sheep would pass through Smithfield market in a year. By 1963, 400,000 tons of meat passed through per year. In 1975 Smithfield Market employed 2,700 people. A further 3,000 worked in around 100 firms within a few hundred yards. By 1980, though, it had fallen to around 200,000 tons and by 2009 it was just 85,000 tons. Could the large number of butchers’ chains that now buy direct from producers, and the recent popularity for a ‘plant based diet’ mean that this ancient establishment may face the chop itself one day? Let’s hope not.
20 St Bart’s Hospital was founded in 1123 by King Henry I’s jester. Rahere, a minstrel and fun- lover at the court of Henry I, caught malaria on a pilgrimage to Rome. He vowed that if he should survive, he would reform his licentious ways and set up a hospital and church to serve London’s poor.
21 The church founded by Rahere still survives. St Bartholomew-The-Great is the oldest Parish church in London, and was the setting for Hugh Grant’s almost-wedding to ‘Duck Face’ in Four Weddings and a Funeral. In 2008, the church’s controversial rector, Rev Martin Dudley, became the first clergyman to conduct an unauthorised ‘gay wedding’ in an Anglican church. Much to the annoyance of the Anglican church.