Smithfield Market – Blood, Stone & Victorian Grandeur
Smithfield Market in London is the city's oldest trading ground, operating as a major livestock market since 1174 and serving as a notorious execution site. Architect Horace Jones modernized the Victorian wholesale meat market over underground railway lines. Historic events at Smithfield include the brutal execution of Scottish knight William Wallace in 1305 and the fatal stabbing of Peasants' Revolt leader Wat Tyler in 1381.
London · from the walk “Clerkenwell Uncovered: From the World's First Tube to London's Radical Heart” · audio ~4 min · Generated
Smithfield Market, West Smithfield, London EC1A 9PS
- In 1174, clerk William Fitzstephen recorded Smithfield as a major London market for horses, pigs, and cattle.
- Scottish hero William Wallace was executed at London's Smithfield Market on August 23, 1305.
- Peasants' Revolt leader Wat Tyler was fatally stabbed at Smithfield Market on June 15, 1381.
- Architect Horace Jones modernized Smithfield Market by building it over underground railway yards with hydraulic lifts.
- During the World War II Blitz, about 600 people slept nightly inside converted tunnels beneath Smithfield Market.
Which Scottish hero was executed at Smithfield Market in 1305?
Welcome to Smithfield... or as medieval Londoners knew it, the Smooth Field. Its name comes from the Old English "Smeeth field," meaning simply a flat, open area that stretched from the city walls down toward the River Fleet. For over a thousand years, this patch of ground has been soaked in commerce... and in blood.......... As far back as eleven seventy-four, a clerk named William Fitzstephen described this place as a celebrated rendezvous for the sale of fine horses, swine, and oxen of immense bulk. Animals reared as far away as the Midlands were driven here on foot for sale. Picture it... thousands of cattle, pigs, and sheep crammed together, just steps from one of London's greatest hospitals. The noise. The stench. The chaos.......... But Smith field's darkest chapter is written not in livestock ledgers, but in human suffering. This is where people came to die. A spot called "The Elms" here at Smithfield is the oldest execution site in London. On August twenty-third, thirteen oh five, the Scottish knight William Wallace was dragged here. Stripped naked and hauled through the city from the Tower of London, he was hanged until nearly dead, then cut down alive... emasculated, eviscerated, and finally beheaded. His head was dipped in tar and placed on a spike atop London Bridge. His limbs were sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth as a warning to all of Scotland.......... Seventy-six years later, this same ground witnessed another explosive moment. The king and his party positioned themselves outside Saint Bartholomew's Priory, while Thousands of rebels massed along the western end. It was June fifteen, thirteen eighty-one. Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants' Revolt, stepped forward to negotiate with fourteen-year-old King Richard the Second. During the confrontation, Tyler was stabbed in the throat by the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth. Tyler was dragged to nearby Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, then hauled back to Smithfield and publicly beheaded.......... And what happened next? Here's the remarkable thing. The Great Fire of sixteen sixty-six never reached Smithfield. While most of London burned, this corner survived. The market grew and Grew... until the Victorians decided to modernize it. The architect commissioned was Horace Jones, the same man who would later design Tower Bridge. And his most revolutionary idea? He built the entire market Over underground railway goods yards. For the first time ever, meat was delivered by underground railway directly into a wholesale market. Hydraulic lifts raised carcasses from the train platforms below right up to the market floor.......... During the Second World War, the disused railway tunnels beneath this market were converted into air raid shelters, with approximately six hundred people from the district sleeping here each night during the Blitz.......... So as you stand here, remember... beneath your feet run Victorian tunnels and hidden vaults. And the ground you walk on has witnessed jousting knights, burning heretics, a Scottish hero's final agony, and a peasant leader's last stand. Eight centuries of meat and blood, all in one extraordinary place.