Smithfield Market — Attraction in London

The only things you want to know are...

1. the CONgestion charge starts at 7am through to 630pm, with emphasis on the CON!!, the mayors stealth tax! So I'd aim to be leaving the area CONgestion charge zone by 650am at the latest !

2. parking is free up to 630am except on the red route! Plenty of parking spaces around the market but it is usually busy there at about midnight until 7am, with white vans all trying to get in a spot so they can deliver or pick-up! If youre a customer, I'd recommend that you park in some of the side roads leading to the market as the ring road around the actual market will be chockablock with the white vans in the early hours.and not all of the drivers are looking out for the safety of the public or even understand the language of the road signs (I'm not slating foreign drivers but you can see my point !) And with the amount of forklifts moving around there as there are plenty of pallets that need moving, If you'd like to see yourself as a good common sense type of person, I'm sure you'll be able to avoid getting run over by a forklift driver who is delivering heavy pallets of fresh meat! So look both ways when crossing the road!! Even if they're one way! Especially in the roads around the market.

3. straight onto the rant about the old boring one ( mayor of London- sadiq khan) who is out to get whatever he can from the taxpayers so he put a parking wardens role on a quota for issued tickets , so I'd recommend that you don't sit around in your car after 7am as I'm sure you'll find it seems to be another scamming method to rob you of your hard earned money by issuing a parking ticket or by you missing the congestion charge times! And heaven knows how much of a jobsworth he's going to be , with the new ultra low carbon emissions charge of £100 per day for Smokey motors, the mayor of seems to think that you are actually doing quite good for money from the fact you can own a vehicle!

4. I hope you find this helpful! If it is somewhat rambling!! I'm really quite tired of all the work I put into this low paid driving job and then I'll be on my way back home , when you're a delivery driver who is delivering to Smithfield market and then driving all the way around London then back to Bourne after all the deliveries have been made! It's either driving or trying to sleep before the next days delivery round! And I go round and round and I won't be writing anymore on it yet but it's all about the money and I'm tired of it all! So no more Mr nice guy, I'm not going to be a mug by working with the minimum wage paying boss I used to work for, sorry if you didn't realise I'm having a rant at the government for robbing us blind with taxes and fines and stuff and I'm sure you'll be fine after all the work you put into reading this !! I hope you find this helpful to see yourself going for a trip to the "butchers shop" to the butchers shops to buy some quality meaty bits and bobs! And getting them at a decent price! I'm sure you'll find something to get the big fan of meat in your family , something to get excited about!! Pheasants and partridge are looking at the end of the season but now it'll be pigeons that sell! And i hate collecting pigeons from the shoots, I like guns but I wouldn't want to kill anything!! Besides...

Meat has been traded at Smithfield Market for more than 800 years, making it one of the oldest markets in London. A livestockmarket occupied the site as early as the 10th century. In 1174 the site was described by William Fitzstephen as:

"a smooth field where every Friday there is a celebrated rendezvous of fine horses to be traded, and in another quarter are placed vendibles of the peasant, swine with their deep flanks, and cows and oxen of immense bulk."

Costs, customs and rules were meticulously laid down. For instance, for an ox, a cow or a dozen sheep one could get 1 penny. The livestock market expanded over the centuries to meet demand from the growing population of the City. In 1710, the market was surrounded by a wooden fence containing the livestock within the market. Until the market's abolition, the Gate House at Cloth Fair ("Fair Gate") employed a chain (le cheyne) on market days. Daniel Defoe referred to the livestock market in 1726 as being "without question, the greatest in the world", and data available appear to corroborate his statement. Between 1740 and 1750 the average yearly sales at Smithfield were reported to be around 74,000 cattle and 570,000 sheep.By the middle of the 19th century, in the course of a single year 220,000 head of cattle and 1,500,000 sheep would be "violently forced into an area of five acres, in the very heart of London, through its narrowest and most crowded thoroughfares". The volume of cattle driven daily to Smithfield started to raise major concerns. The Great North Road traditionally began at Smithfield Market and mileages were measured from here. The specific start was Hicks Hall, and its former location continued to be used for mileages even after it was demolished, soon after 1778. The road followed St John Street, and continued north, eventually leading to Edinburgh. This ended in 1829, with the establishment of the General Post Office at St Martin's-le-Grand, which became the new...

I've been going for 3/4 year, to buy fresh meat at this market. They don't improve the parking around. Once I parked on a permit holders only for 10mts,not.more and I already had a ticket. It was empty, lots of spaces, I wasn't taking the space for anyone,but still got a fine after 10mts. "Fair enough."

This Christmas I travelled 1 hour to go there and buy some meat for Christmas. After the fine I got, I realised you can park at the loading areas, it's the only area you can really park close to the market. I never stay too long anyway. I got another fine. The guys did not have card payment in one of the stores, so I had to walk in the rain to find an atm.

I spoke to the officer in charge and the lady said the officers were hired to fine people who park in the loading areas, because it is Christmas nd they need all the space they can have. They organised some kind of parking somewhere around the market, as a temporary solution, but did not make the signals clear, or indications how to get there properly, not even inform people that they would be fined if they parked on the loading bay areas, only at this time!

I found out that there are websites that deliver the meat at your home, with the right cut you want, any meat you want, same quality as the market, you pay online, they deliver at your doorstep, its already cut and fresh and you don't pay for delivery above £100. One of them is Andrade butcher. I am very happy to order from here from now on.

Ah, and you obviously don't have to drive all the way there, save petrol and don't get any fines!

I'm sharing this because the governments, the companies the laws don't care about us, "little people", consumers, so I'm trying to help the ones like me not to lose their time with this kind of stupidity that steals...