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Smithfield, London

Areas of LondonDistricts of the City of LondonExecution sites in EnglandLondon crime historySmithfield, London
Use British English from November 2014
Smithfield Meat Market tower1
Smithfield Meat Market tower1

Smithfield is a district located in Central London, part of Farringdon Without, the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. The principal street of the area is West Smithfield.A number of City institutions are located in the area, such as St Bartholomew's Hospital, the Charterhouse, and livery halls, including those of the Butchers' and Haberdashers' Companies. Smithfield's meat market dates from the 10th century, and is now London's only remaining wholesale market in continuous operation since medieval times. The area also contains London's oldest surviving church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, founded in AD 1123. Smithfield has borne witness to many executions of heretics and political rebels over the centuries, as well as Scottish knight Sir William Wallace, and Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants' Revolt, among many other religious reformers and dissenters. Smithfield Market, a Grade II listed-covered market building, was designed by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones in the second half of the 19th century, and is the dominant architectural feature of the area. Some of its original market premises fell into disuse in the late 20th century and faced the prospect of demolition. The Corporation of London's public enquiry in 2012 drew widespread support for an urban regeneration plan intent upon preserving Smithfield's historical identity.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Smithfield, London (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Smithfield, London
West Poultry Avenue, City of London

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Wikipedia: Smithfield, LondonContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.519 ° E -0.102 °
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London Central Markets

West Poultry Avenue
EC1A 9LY City of London
England, United Kingdom
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Smithfield Meat Market tower1
Smithfield Meat Market tower1
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Golden Boy of Pye Corner
Golden Boy of Pye Corner

The Golden Boy of Pye Corner is a small late-17th-century monument located on the corner of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane in Smithfield, central London. It marks the spot where the 1666 Great Fire of London was stopped, whereas the Monument indicates the place where it started. The statue of a naked boy is made of wood and is covered with gold; the figure was formerly winged. The late 19th-century building that incorporates it is a Grade II listed building but listed only for the figure.It bears the following small inscription below it: This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late FIRE of LONDON Occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony 1666. The lower inscription, approximately 10 ft (3.0 m) below the boy, reads as follows: The boy at Pye Corner was erected to commemorate the staying of the Great Fire, which, beginning at Pudding Lane, was ascribed to the sin of gluttony when not attributed to the papists as on the Monument, and the boy was made prodigiously fat to enforce the moral. He was originally built into the front of a public-house called "The Fortune of War" which used to occupy this site and was pulled down in 1910. "The Fortune of War" was the chief house of call north of the river for resurrectionists in body snatching days. Years ago the landlord used to show the room where on benches round the walls the bodies were placed labelled with the snatchers' names, waiting till the surgeons at Saint Bartholomew's could run round and appraise them.