Random jottings - Old London - markets # 2

Here we are again me dears with the rest of Daniel Defoe's Flesh markets of old London town.
As you will remember from the first post these are the old meat markets and not the brothels of which there were many

The Stocks' Market

The old Stocks' Market, built for the sale of fish and flesh by Henry Walis, mayor in the 10th year of the reign of Edward I. Before this time a pair of stocks had stood there, and they gave their name to the new market house.

It was rebuilt in the reign of Henry IV., and in the year 1543 there were here twenty-five fishmongers and eighteen butchers. In the reign of Henry VIII. a stone conduit was erected. The market-place was about 230 feet long and 108 feet broad, and on the east side were rows of trees "very pleasant to the inhabitants." On the north side were twenty-two covered fruit stalls, at the south-west corner butchers' stalls, and the rest of the place was taken up by gardeners who sold fruit, roots, herbs and flowers. It is said that that rich scented flower, the stock, derived its name from being sold in this market.

This statue of Charles has an interesting story.
Originally intended as a statue of John Sobieski, the Polish king who saved Vienna from the Turks.  Sobieski's stern head was removed and the head of Charles substituted, and the turbaned Turk, on whom Sobieski trampled, became a defeated Cromwell.
The statue was set up May 29, 1672, and on that day the Stocks' Market ran with claret

The Stocks Market was rebuilt many times and and by 1675 it was also a major hub for trade and life in London, particularly financial trade.

It was removed to make way for the building of the Mansion House
read more.



Southwark Market.

The market was held near the place of St. Margaret's Church in 1542, but afterwards in the Borough High Street, While the fair was held near St George's church yard,
The market was discontinued before 1754, when the churchwardens and inhabitants of the parish of St. Saviour were enabled by Act of Parliament to hold a market on another site, (Rochester Yard). This is the origin of the present Borough Market which takes place on ground by St. Saviour's churchyard,
where Rochester House used to stand.

Borough high street  from  the John Rocque map 1746

Newport Market

Stood immediately behind Leicester Square and formed part of Soho (now the area known as Chinatown). At the northwest angle of Newport-street was formerly a town house of the family of Newport, which was converted into a small market that  retained the name.

Most of the French refugees who came to England settled here; -
it was observed in 1739, observes that, "Many parts of the parish abound with French, so that it is an easy matter for a stranger to fancy himself in France."

'In this queer locality a number of genuine French shops are to be found much as they were during the emigration after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Many of them are cheap cafés and restaurants, like those near "the barrier" in Paris.

In Newport Market and its neighbourhood there were from forty to fifty butchers, together with slaughterhouses and drovers. They killed weekly upon an average from 300 to 400 bullocks, from 500 to 700 sheep, according to circumstances, and from 50 to 100 calves; 1000 to 1100 sheep have been known to have been killed in one week.




Clare Market

Clare Market was an area of London to the west of Lincoln's Inn Fields, between the Strand and Drury Lane, with Vere Street adjoining its western side

Clare Market was originally centred on a small market building constructed by Lord Clare in c.1657, but the retail area spread through a maze of narrow interconnecting streets lined by butchers' shops and greengrocers. Butchers would slaughter sheep and cattle for sale. An area was set aside for Jews to slaughter kosher meat. The market mostly sold meat,

the pink arrow points to the market

The area was not affected by the Great Fire of London, and the decrepit Elizabethan buildings survived until the area, by then a slum, was redeveloped by the London County Council in around 1900 to create the Aldwych and Kingsway. Parts of the London School of Economics now occupy the site.

William Hogarth, drank at the Bull's Head Tavern in the market
"There are about 26 butchers in and about Clare Market, who slaughter from 350 to 400 sheep weekly in the market, stalls and cellars. There is one place only in which bullocks are slaughtered. The number killed is from 50 to 60 weekly, but considerably more in winter, amounting occasionally to 200. The number of calves is very uncertain. Near the market is a tripe-house, in which they boil and clean the tripes, feet, heads, &c. In a yard distinct from the more public portion of the market, is the place the Jews slaughter their cattle, according to a ceremony prescribed by the laws of their religion; here greater attention is paid to cleanliness."


Honey Lane Market

Honey Lane and other buildings were converted into a market after the Fire 1666, and that the area covered by the market was spacious, being 193 ft. long and 97 ft. broad, with a large square Market House in the centre, and stalls for butchers

The market closed in 1835 and the Corporation of London built the first City of London School there. After the Second World War the area was comprehensively redeveloped; the present Honey Lane lies some 140 ft to the east of the original lane

St James's Market

Like St. James's Church, St. James's Market was established under the aegis of the Earl of St. Albans
to serve the growing number of people who had come to live in the new buildings in the vicinity. A market house was built in 1665–6.

On 1 April 1666 Pepys wrote in his diary 'So all up and down my Lord St. Albans his new building and market-house, and the taverne under the market-house'

By the 1880's the buildings in the new market were dilapidated.
There were two cases of typhoid fever amongst the inhabitants in 1882 and the vestry clerk of St. James's complained to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests that the buildings there were 'not altogether suitable for human habitation

The lease expired in 1916 and at the end of the war the plans of the Office of Woods and Forests, made previously, for the closure of the market and the redevelopment of the whole site were put into operation.
These involved the widening of the existing passageway from Market Street (now St. Alban's Street) to the Haymarket, to form a new street, now called St. James's




Carnaby market

 Lowndes Market. was created around 1720, that market was then enlarged in 1735 by an eastward extension built on Lord Craven's land.
Soon after this extension the name was changed from Lowndes to Carnaby Market

Carnaby Market was closed in 1820 and almost the whole of the area bounded by the modern Foubert's Place, Marshall, Ganton and Carnaby Streets was rebuilt under leases granted by Lord Craven shortly afterwards. Many of the buildings erected then still survive

This is 36–33 Marshall Street in 1962
for more history on the area around Sally's pub click british history on line




Brookfield market  - Mayfair

In the 1680s  King James II established  a cattle market on what was then known as Brookfield Market

May Fair takes its name from the May Day fair that was held there until its suppression in the 18th century. It was held every year on May 1st for 15 days, rivalling the present day Notting Hill Carnival which only lasts for 2. Originally held in Haymarket, in 1686-8 it was moved to Great Brookfield -

As there area became developed there were complaints.
In 1801, for example,
a resident of Brook Street complained that on market days the stable yard behind her house was so crowded with cattle
belonging to the butchers in St. George's Market that her carriage could not be 'aired' without running the risk
of being 'gored by the bullocks'; and her neighbour objected to being disturbed in the morning by the bleating of sheep and calves

The area is now the site if Curzon Street and Shepherd Market.

Shadwell market

This meat market was established by Thomas Neale by 1681

The King Edward Memorial Park now covers the site of a market
What was left of  the market and houses were demolished for the park which opened in 1922.

If any one has more info on this market I would love to share it

Westminster Market

The site of the market was originally known as Bulinga Fen and formed part of the marsh around Westminster.

It was reclaimed by the Benedictine monks who were the builders and owners of Westminster Abbey, and subsequently used as a market and fairground.

After the reformation the land was used in turn as a maze, a pleasure garden and as a ring for bull-baiting but it remained largely waste ground.

The site of the market can be seen in this map as the same as the prison and now the cathedral

In the 17th century a part of the land was sold by the Abbey for the construction of a prison

which was demolished and replaced by an enlarged prison complex in 1834. The site was acquired by the Catholic Church in 1884 to build  Westminster Cathedral.

The original prison gates still survive  and were moved 1969 to its current home – which was at the time aptly enough, a Magistrate’s court, and now the home of the Supreme Court.

Well there you have it me dears Daniel Defoe's flesh markets.
It has ended up as a real labour of love trying to fit all the pieces together and I am not even half way through his tour of London yet.

ttfn

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