Leadenhall Market
This wonderfully ornate covered market area is to be found just off Whittington Avenue and Gracechurch Street in the City of London and is a popular thoroughfare, boasting restaurants, sandwich bars and shops, where insurance brokers and underwriters spend their time whilst not conducting business at Lloyd’s.
The site was originally occupied by a mansion which had a leaden roof (hence the name) and belonged in the 13th century to a nobleman called Sir Hugh Neville. The area around the manor became a regular meeting place for poulterers and then cheesemongers to sell their wares. Richard Whittington aka Dick gifted the Leadenhall to the City of London in 1411 and after a fire in 1484 which destroyed the original structure, a market was established. Here a thriving trade developed in fish, meat, poultry, grain, eggs, butter, herbs and other foodstuffs. The famous London diarist, Samuel Pepys recorded in 1663 that he had bought a good leg of beef for sixpence there. Further markets, for wool, leather and cutlery, emerged in the vicinity.
Like many places in the area the market was severely damaged by the Great Fire three years later. It was rebuilt and became a covered structure and was divided into three areas – the Beef Market, the Green Yard and the Herb Market. After the Fire the market became particularly well known for its game and poultry.
One of the most famous characters associated with Leadenhall Market was Old Tom whose name has recently been revived as a result of the renovation of the subterranean bar at the Lamb Tavern in the market. Old Tom was a gander who, unlike most of ilk, managed to evade the fate that was originally intended for him. He became a well-established figure in the market and was fed at the local inns in the area and lived to the ripe old age of 38. When he dies in 1835 his body was laid out in state and he was eventually buried in the market.
The market lent its name to a number of terms which were in popular use in the 18th and 19th centuries. A Leadenhall blade was one that would not cut suggesting, perhaps, that the goods on sale were not always of the highest quality. A Leadenhall sportsman was a landowner who sold his game at the market and a Leadenhaller was someone who sold live foxes in bags. One of the problems facing an aspiring huntsman in the period was the dearth in foxes. The enterprising solution was to import them from France and a roaring trade developed in Leadenhall market. The poor foxes were then transported to the country estate, released and torn to pieces by the hounds. Not the most pleasant of fates!
The present structure was commissioned by the Corporation of London, designed by Sir Horace Jones, who also designed the markets at Smithfield and Billingsgate and complete in 1881. It thrived as a game and poultry market well into the 20th century – if you look carefully many of the building still have hooks from which the game was hung – and there are still butchers and cheese shops on the site.
Leadenhall market is also popular with tourists and film directors – you may know it as Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Well worth a look if you are in the area.
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