Smithfield market traders’ anger over works delays
THE chairman of the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association used a formal breakfast this week to complain about delays to the opening of the Museum of London on the Smithfield site.
Speaking on Wednesday in the presence of Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons at Butcher’s Hall in Bartholomew Close, Clerkenwell, Greg Lawrence warned that “the market must continue to flourish until we can move, or there will be nothing to move,” as he criticised delays to the museum project.
The poultry market closed last month, marking the beginning of the end of meat being sold at the historic Clerkenwell site, with just two buildings remaining.
“We hope to see [the Museum of London] open in just two years’ time,” said Mr Lawrence. “All the delays caused by the City, must be owned and resolved and let us learn that lesson at last: the most expensive decisions are the decisions deferred.”
After listening to Mr Lawrence’s concerns Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons, whose year-long tenure ends next month, joked: “Chairman, I think we really ought to get off the fence from time to time.”
He praised the traders, after a tour of the market.
A statement released by the museum said: “Negotiations between the City of London Corporation and Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association to gain vacant possession of the Poultry Market building concluded later than expected and a consequence of this is that we will now phase the project opening.”
By Charlotte Chambers | Islington Tribune
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