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 06 May 2026 · petition.parliament.uk

Signatures

signatures

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

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

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.”