In the news

Bullshit.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/26/smithfield-meat-market-to-close-for-good-after-relocation-plans-voted-down

All for the sake of another empty ugly as fuck skyscraper.

Not read it, but does it mention a new chapter?

Multi million pound affordable housing.

The current Billingsgate site (at Canary Wharf) will definitely be towerblocked (and, at a guess, not just with one), but most of Smithfield is Grade II* listed (the Poultry Market is Grade II) and will become a mixed-use development. There's definitely no danger of new tower blocks there. Benefits of the change of use may include returning the one-way system to two-way operation.

the Poultry Market Grade

Until I parsed this correctly, I was wondering how the Poultry Market Grade system worked. Ah, well, a small world collapses.

The report in the Times said the authority “wants to turn the Smithfield site into a mixed-use cultural development alongside the London Museum and redevelop the Billingsgate site as housing”.

Because London doesn’t have enough of those.

Wagamama, Space Nk, Joe & the Juice incoming.

How is that worse than the place being used for the meat industry and supplied by huge lorries?

And exactly the same at Billingsgate with some unaffordable housing on top.

Al-Muelin has a point. There's a level at which "This is part of my memories and now it's changing" goes very Golf Club.

Will, who does the meat and fish markets supply and who will supply them?

Being over polite is being a cunt , that's the way I see it. Too many people are brainwashed to say sorry , please may I etc yet we get stepped on shat on everyday by the real cunts in power, from a working class perspective that's how I see it anyway, cunt.

London's best cultural assets are fast disappearing. Yet for some reason the Battersea power station chimneys are kept. I don't get it , it's not like people were in them and they were polluting?

When pushing against gentrification, a lot of leftie and liberal types suddenly find themselves borrowing rhetoric from right wing and reactionary agendas. Speaking of which; sure, let's do what we can to protect the meat industry from their inevitable decline.

Old article, but perfectly relevant right now:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study

Yes and no. The chimneys were rebuilt!

I'm not sure the presence/removal of a meat market in central London will have any effect on the meat industry, the level of meat consumption or climate change.

The power station is an iconic landmark but the redevelopment is soulless, that’s what Smithfield has to look forward to.

Out of interest, has anyone got an example of a redevelopment that they'd describe as "soulful"?

And what sort of soul can a place be said to have when its sole purpose for 800 years has been selling chopped up corpses?

Late night early morning legal licence drinking

In the city of london, area 1.1Miles² population 11k.

They'll chase the money as always.

Will it be like borough market as a tourist attraction rather than a functional market for locals

Soul is an open ended concept so there’s no point looking for definitions.

Spitalfields is a good example, it’s not perfect but the project took a derelict part of London and turned it into something new without loosing the original essence of the space.

“a city that is being sold off to the highest bidder piece by piece”

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/shutting-smithfield-shows-a-reckless-disregard-for-londons-history/