Confirmed: Smithfield and Billingsgate are going. But where to?

Dear Londoners — how are you faring in this heat? We hope you're reading this somewhere cool, preferably with a nice big iced-latte to hand. For those of you can't park yourself by the lido today, make sure your commutes are planned accordingly — data just published by real estate company Making Moves predicts the Victoria and Central lines are set to be the hottest (at 32 and 31.4°C, respectively), while the air-conditioned Waterloo & City and Jubilees are the coolest (a balmy 26.2 and 25.1 degrees). If all else fails, sit yourself by the fridge in the nearest Pret and read today's briefing on the precarious future of London’s most historic markets, infighting in London’s mudlarking community and what may just be the cheapest pint in Central London. 

Big story: What’s the future for Billingsgate and Smithfield Markets? 

Top Line: The City of London Corporation has published its plans to imminently redevelop the sites that Billingsgate and Smithfield markets currently stand on. 

Background: The future of London’s most historic fish and meat markets has been up in the air ever since November, when the City of London formally decided that it would close the two markets and abandon plans to move them to a site in Dagenham Docks, which they had already spent well over £200m purchasing and redeveloping.

The future: As reported by OnLondon, the City of London’s latest proposals, announced on Thursday, confirm the redevelopment of both locations. Billingsgate’s site near Canary Wharf is set to be transformed into some 4,0000 new homes; meanwhile, Smithfield is set to be regenerated into a “cultural and commercial hub” to accompany the new London Museum, set to open next year in a once-abandoned section of the market.

What comes next?: The City of London have pledged to help find the markets’ traders a new home somewhere “within the M25”. But without any specific plans being confirmed just yet, the future of the Billingsgate and Smithfield traders is still up in the air.

An empty plot in Dagenham: While the corporation has shelved plans to move the markets to Dagenham Docks, it’s put together an 11 person team in association with Barking council, to explore how the site could still provide “high quality jobs for local people”.

Your London in brief

🌊 London’s mudlarking community has exploded after a spate of viral TikToks. But its growing popularity has caused a set of serious spats including graffiti campaigns, physical brawls and artefacts being illegally sold on Etsy, reports London Centric.

🎭 A parade of lifesize puppet animals marched through Soho on Friday as part of an art project, The Herds, to signify the displacement of animals and humans caused by the climate crisis. The photos from the event are worth checking out, not least to see bemused crowds staring at a huge giraffe puppet making its way through Seven Dials.

📚 Yet more school closures have been announced in Central London, with five schools in Westminster set to be merged into two to address a chronic collapse in student numbers. If you want to understand more about why so many schools in London are facing the same problem, read our explainer from February.

🏗️ The Financial Times managed to interview one of London’s most influential property tycoons, Jamie Reuben (son of all-powerful London property developer David Reuben) about his £1bn vision for the redevelopment of Mayfair. If you haven’t heard of the Reuben family — the second wealthiest in the UK — you’re no doubt familiar with one of the famous properties they own, including the Burlington Arcade, Millbank Tower and sections of Oxford Street. 

🏚️ Two apartment blocks in Barnet are facing demolition and being replaced with new housing after council safety inspections found the buildings were at “disproportionate risk of collapse”. 

Got a story for us to look into? Please get in touch.

Given how many compliments we've had about our new website, we thought our designer Jenny Miles deserved a proper shout out. Jenny is an award-winning graphic designer with over 20 years of international experience spanning creative brand strategy, graphic design, and visual storytelling across a wide range of platforms including branding, print, packaging, websites, social media, and full 360 campaigns. She's worked for top clients like FIAT, Penguin Books, New York Magazine and us. You can find her here.

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If you missed it

Last week’s stories:

• On Wednesday, we chronicled the inside saga of how Lime managed to take over London, using a mixture of technology, multi million-pound deals with councils and financial investment bigger than the entire economy of most Caribbean nations. Read the full story here.
• At the centre of Covent Garden lies the area’s last community garden. Soon, it might disappear — all due to a new luxury hotel and theatre built for Cirque du Soleil. Check out our write-up on the future of this Central London oasis.
• Over the weekend, we gave readers a look behind the scenes of the London’s fine dining world in an interview with legendary chef Adam Byatt, covering everything from the economic of London’s elite restaurants to how things have changed from the frantic, often abusive, working conditions of the 1990s.

Wining and dining

With endless offerings and non-stop openings, we all know that deciding where to eat and drink in the capital can be fraught. We want to make it easy — so every week we’ll give you our insider guide to the city’s best spots. 

One perfect meal: The capital’s Ethiopian and Eritrean community hubs are mostly situated north of the river, in places like West Hampstead and Shepherd’s Bush. So it might come as a surprise that Brixton is also home to a thriving East African dining scene — within a radius of around a mile, there’s the uniformly excellent Light of Africa, Sam’s, Hwnet and Addis. One such spot that often gets overlooked is Kitchen Majeti, located in the old Brixton Arcade. The space itself is charmingly tiny, wedged in one of the stalls and decorated with patterned textiles and traditional mesobs (woven baskets). 

When it comes to picking dishes, it’s hard to go wrong. Our recommendation is the vegan special sharing platter for two, which includes shiro wat (a rich, silky chickpea dish) and firfir (a Berbere-spiced onion, chilli and tomato sauce) all served on a large injera, a tangy, spongy bread that serves as the backbone of the region’s cuisine. Wash it down with a traditional Ethiopian coffee or, if the sun’s over the yardarm, treat yourself to a Habesha beer.

One perfect drink: A current obsession here at The Londoner HQ is seeking out the capital’s last remaining £5 pints. What seemed initially like a Sisyphean task has actually led to some beautiful discoveries. Maybe chief among them is the Shakespeare’s Head in Clerkenwell — beyond the beer being so cheap it triggered an existential crisis, the atmosphere in this flat roof pub is surprisingly buzzing.

One of those places that has remained almost entirely unchanged for decades — all wood panels, stained carpets and cracking wooden picnic tables in a concrete streetside garden — the newfound trend for “old man” pubs means the Shakespeare’s Head is now filled with a varied clientele, with both elderly retirees and a chic arts students nattering away at the bar. 

Our favourite reads

The West End’s Hottest Seats: The Piles of Trash Outside ‘Evita’ — Alex Marshall, New York Times

The season’s most exclusive seat isn’t in a private box — it’s on the pavement of Argyll Street, where huge crowds have been gathering to watch Rachel Zegler, the star of musical Evita, sing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from the balcony of the Palladium. Inside the theatre, the number is broadcast on a large screen, a move “hotly discussed on theater message boards, on social media and in newspaper comments sections”.

Should we stop the UK’s best talent moving to London? — Chris Giles, Financial Times

In the past week, two think tanks released reports warning about the brain-drain effect London has on the rest of the country — 46% more graduates live in London than would be expected from locals alone, says one — and advocating for the government to intervene and correct this geographical inequality. In this piece, Giles crunches the numbers and comes to the controversial conclusion that there is “surely little harm in geographical inequalities generated by people being successful and following their own path”.

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To Do List

1. Last week, the London Transport Museum opened a new photography exhibition to celebrate the 25th birthday of  TfL. The 40 images documenting the lives of travelling Londoners, and the staff that keep the city running, were compiled by train driver Anne Maningas.
2. Ever wondered about life in the mysterious, artistic circles of Eel Pie Island in Twickenham? Well their various renowned artists and craft-makers are running an open studio on the first weekend of July.

From the archive 

If you, like us, are fascinated at the behind-the-scenes workings of London, then you’ll love this news clip from 1950 about the night-time workers who clean the tube tunnels’ air vents. If the 70-second news clip isn’t enough for you, maybe go and check out our piece from last year when we spent a night underground with the modern-day iterations of these cleaners.