Cocaine like us all…
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Kneecap.
Shite.
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You’re not far wrong. Insane book, all true.
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Not trying to be pedantic, but I would be cautious with Ohler as a source. Richard Evans (among others) demolished this book when it came out.
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Yeah, plenty of scholars on the subject were critical of a lot of the book.
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Interesting… I enjoyed the book … and you sort of ‘want’ it to be true… but it’s not a version of events I’d heard before. Basically that Blitzreig == meth binge
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Don’t get how London can just casually discard 900 years of heritage but there it is…
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Wouldn’t happen in France.
Les Halles would like a word
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All you need to know…
Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said the decision represented a “positive new chapter” for the markets as it “empowers traders to build a sustainable future in premises that align with their long-term business goals”.
Yer what?
“It’s not us, it’s them”
Basically we want to property develop your market and have investors wanting a return. We want to bring five guys pret itsu Nero Gail’s etc to the area to freshen the place up and give it some vibrancy.
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The John Peel stage at Glastonbury was rebranded as Woodies last year. The official explanation doesn’t really hold water… Glastonbury’s John Peel Stage renamed Woodsies for 2023 festival
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Would definitely happen in France.
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It’s fucking shit, there’s no wonder every major city to some degree or another now looks the same, with architecture as unimaginative as the greedy wankers that brokered the development of the land.
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BUT there is much less demand for a wholesale meat market in the middle of Barbican
I love a tradition but the amount of porters wheeling a trolley of pigs carcasses round the streets is much less than it was & much less stores ( I used to go past or through for work for many years)
Keeping the building is v important ( & it is listed) but restaurants dont go buy & buy their own meat anymore (especially having to fight traffic in central London or out to E London) & hardly any retail butchers left & Id say both have special suppliers who deliver
Billingsgate closed early 80s so if new one was viable they would keep it / Smithfield has been dieing for years
Neither can really create a mixed foody exp like Borough ( which I imagine does no wholesale from site) or Barcelona one
Its not just the man trying to make a fast buck & more urban geography ( get me!) & food retail trends
I will miss the smell of walking through the central avenue in the summer though
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Another nail in the coffin for the sterile old sleepy city.
Sure, I’m not arguing with the economics. I haven’t lived in London for 12 years so I’m way out of touch, and my post was pure sentiment. You can’t help thinking though that whatever replaces it will be really bland like Andrew said and bring zero to the area, whether retail or residential. Some kind of non-profit, community scheme of some kind would be my preferred, but I guess money talks
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It’s just about practicalities. When I was wholesaling veg, our company moved from New Covent Garden (which is also now on the way out, having itself moved from the old market in the west end) to a market near Heathrow. Not only did a lot of produce arrive in the country by plane, but our walk in customer base expanded massively with businesses from across the SE who didn’t want to go into central London, taking advantage of the easy motorway access, while the days of chefs visiting a market to hand pick their produce are long gone.
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