After some 900 years, the iconic Smithfield market will close its doors in 2028 with the future of the traders uncertain

London’s historic Smithfield meat market to close - The City of London Corporation has shelved plans to relocate Smithfield and Billingsgate fish markets to a £1 billion development in Dagenham.

There has been a meat market on the site for more than eight centuries, but after 2028 that is set to change after a corporation vote put an end to its ownership.

London’s historic Smithfield meat market appears set to shut after almost 900 years of trading, following a vote on Tuesday afternoon.The City of London Corporation said its council voted to stop operating both Smithfield and Billingsgate fish market.

Smithfield Market is located in the City of London, near the Barbican, St Paul's Cathedral and St Bartholomew's Hospital, and dates back to the 10th century

The Smithfield site is particularly historic. Meat has been traded from the same spot since the 14th century. Billingsgate boasts similar antiquity, but its ancient home near London Bridge was closed in 1982 in favour of a larger site in the Docklands.

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 traded in Lower Thames Street in the City for 900 years, before moving to its current site in Poplar, east London, in 1982.

The City Corporation had previously planned to relocate Smithfield and Billingsgate fish market to a new site in Dagenham. The corporation is recommending the market is shut down and that traders are offered compensation payments.

Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world London's historic Smithfield meat market is at risk of being closed for good at a vote in the City of London.

Smithfield Market, one of London’s oldest trading sites, is set to close after nearly 900 years of operation. This decision, made by the City of London Corporation, marks the end of a chapter for a historic institution central to the capital’s meat trade for centuries.