PETITIONRejectedPetition · petition.parliament.uk

Prevent the permanent closure of Smithfield and Billingsgate Markets.

The Market(s) have been operating since 1133. They survived the Great Fire. The Government needs to prevent their closure. City of London Corporation must be required to maintain the Markets and their activity. The Government must preserve this important remnant of truly historic London life.

Last fetched 18 May 2026 · petition.parliament.uk

Signatures

signatures

Government response threshold (10,000) · 7/10,000

Debate threshold (100,000) · 7/100,000

Petition progress2 events · Nov 2024 – Jan 2025

20 JAN 2025
Petition rejected
irrelevant
Decisions about Smithfield meat market and Billingsgate fish market are a decision for the City of London Corporation. You could ask your MP to take action on your concerns about this issue, including by asking them to present a public petition about this. You can find contact details for your local MP here: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP You can also raise this issue with the City of London Corporation. You can find contact details for the City of London Corporation here: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/footer/contact-the-city-corporation
30 NOV 2024
Petition created

Background

The sites  are amongst the last vestiges of a truly historic London life. They are remnants of the diverse grain and fabric of our important city. If we allow their erasure we will be complicit in an extreme act of vandalism.
The traders are shocked. “My dad was a butcher here in the 1960s. I was here as a little baby,” said Pat, a trader who said he now did not know what his future holds. “Many of the people here are local. They’ve only known market life. It’s the end of the work life I know.”