Day 20: Leadenhall Market
Even if you have never been here, you will likely recognise Leadenhall Market from the various films it has featured in including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Leadenhall began its life as a market in the early 1300’s when it was a popular meat and poultry trading post. It continued as a market for a few more centuries and by the 1600’s it was the most important market in medieval and early modern London.
In the 1800’s it underwent a redesign to fit in with the financial district which it was now at the heart of. The current wrought iron and glass structure is the result of that and remains until today. It is no longer a market but is home to a number of boutiques, café’s and restaurants.
It has been suggested that Leadenhall Market featured in Dicken’s Christmas Carol and is very likely the market Scrooge sent a boy to to buy the biggest turkey for the Cratchits. When you enter for the first time and see the lamps, the stone entrance the intricate iron structure with all the small shop fronts this makes this suggestion very probable.
Leadenhall Market has to do very little to look Christmassy, and the large Christmas tree which stands at the centre looks very much at home. The interior is green and red and cream, and shop windows draped in garlands of greenery are a little like a Dickensian Christmas card.
Even though it is situated within the heart of The Square Mile, London’s business district when you step beneath the iron arches you enter another time and place entirely.
Like all the best hidden London places when you come Leadenhall Market for the first time it is a wonderful surprise.
Must go next time we visit!
Author
Absolutely. We can add it to the list!