Rats, rats and more rats
Smithfield Market. There’s been a meat market on this spot for over 800 years. The current Smithfield Market – I mean the buildings – are lovely old Victorian spaces. Still selling meat and fish.
We watched a TV program about it once. It’s one of those businesses that work all night to be ready for trade in the morning. It’s a whole overnight ecosystem.
I read somewhere it was closing down after all this time, but there’s no hint of it on the website.
The London Museum has shut for a year in order to move to Smithfield, it looks like in the old poultry building. I couldn’t be bothered to look it up for sure.
In the course of renovating their new (old) building, workmen broke through a wall and discovered an 800-square-yard warren of Victorian tunnels. “The hidden space was rediscovered in 2019 during the early days of the £437m development project, when a building contractor broke through a wall to find a vast, rat-infested network of subterranean vaults.”
They kinda knew there were underground rooms, but they had no idea of the scale. It’s astonishing the things they’ve found walled off in London.
We went to the London Museum once, years ago, in the old building. Outside on a bench, we found a purse and called the police to collect it. The police opened it up and found the woman’s information and a pair of false teeth.
How do you leave your teeth on a park bench?
February 11, 2025 — 6:30 pm
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