LONDON (AP) — Two of London's most famous markets — one selling fish, the other meat — are set to close in the coming years, bringing an end to traditions stretching back to medieval times.
On Wednesday, the City of London Corporation, the governing body in the capital city's historic hub, is set to present a bill to Parliament to bring an end to its responsibilities to operate the Billingsgate fish market and the Smithfield meat market, both of which have existed in some shape or form since the 11th century.
That comes a day after the corporation decided not to relocate the markets to a new development just east of London in Dagenham.
It abandoned the planned move because of the growing expense, both as a result of the recent bout of inflation and an increase in construction costs — at around 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion), as things stand.
Instead, under a new agreement with market traders, the corporation will provide financial compensation and advice. The traders have a bit of time to work out what to do, with operations continuing until at least 2028.
“This decision represents a positive new chapter for Smithfield and Billingsgate Markets in that it empowers Traders to build a sustainable future in premises that align with their long-term business goals," said Chris Hayward, the policy chairman of the City of London Corporation. “By stepping back from direct market operations, we will help to create opportunities for these businesses to thrive independently.”
The traders will now work out how to relocate to wherever they wish to in London, potentially on their own or within groups.
No doubt, wherever they end up, their place of work will be shiny and new. But it will be lacking in tradition.
At Smithfield, the market traders typically begin work at 10 p.m., selling mainly to the restaurant trade, and finish up at about 6 a.m., just as the rest of the city is waking up. Pubs around the market traditionally had special licenses allowing them to open in the early hours of the morning to serve the traders.
Peter Ackroyd, who wrote the seminal “London: The Biography” in 2000, said the Billingsgate fish market has its roots in the early 11th century, before William the Conqueror turned up with his Norman troops in England to bring an end to Saxon times. Smithfield, built just beyond the old Roman wall, became the go-to place for the sale of horses, sheep and cattle later that century.
Ackroyd describes how, for hundreds of years, Smithfield and Billingsgate, as well as other markets selling flowers, fruit and vegetables, and poultry, were woven into the fabric of London life, though often known for drunkenness, general rowdiness and violence. The great British author Charles Dickens described Smithfield, for example, as a center of “filth and mire,” referencing the market in both ”Oliver Twist" and “Great Expectations.”
With the advent of food standards and regular rebuilds, the markets are clearly not as squalid as they were in medieval times.
But another costly rebuilding was looming. Smithfield's buildings date from Victorian times, with some modifications, and suffered a major fire in 1958, while Billingsgate has been at its current site in London Docklands since 1982, a district that was then derelict but is now home to the gleaming towers of the Canary Wharf financial district.
There are proposals to build 4,000 much-needed new houses at the Billingsgate site, while Smithfield is set to become a cultural center and will house the new London Museum.
FILE - Traditional porters at work at Billingsgate fish market in London, on Aug. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
FILE - A woman wheels away meat products bought at Smithfield meat market in London, on May 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — For half a century, New York City residents have taken out their trash by flinging plastic bags stuffed with stinking garbage straight onto the sidewalk.
When the bags inevitably leak or break open, they spill litter into the street, providing smorgasbords for rats. In the winter, the trash mounds get buried in snow and remain frozen in place for days, sometimes weeks, reinforcing the city’s reputation as filthy.
Now, New Yorkers are slowly adjusting to a radically new routine, at least for America's biggest city: putting their trash in bins. With lids.
Covered bins became a requirement this month for all residential buildings with fewer than 10 living units. That’s the majority of residential properties. All city businesses had to start using bins earlier this year.
“I know this must sound absurd to anyone listening to this who lives pretty much in any other city in the world,” said Jessica Tisch, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, who oversaw the new measures before becoming the city's new police commissioner this week. “But it is revolutionary by New York City’s standards because, for 50 years, we have placed all our trash directly on the curbs.”
Residents who've already experienced trash containerization elsewhere agree it's long overdue for New York City to catch up.
“You see plastic bags open with the food just rotting and stinking and then it leaking out over the sidewalk and into the road,” said John Midgley, who owns a brownstone in Brooklyn and has lived in London, Paris and Amsterdam. "Just the stink of it builds up, you know, week after week after week.”
New York City's homes, businesses and institutions put about 44 million pounds (20 million kilograms) of waste out on the curb every day, about 24 million pounds (11 million kilograms) of which is collected by the city's sanitation department. Much of the rest is handled by private garbage carters.
In the early 20th century, New York City required trash to be placed in metal cans. But in the era before widespread plastic bag use, refuse was thrown directly into the bins, making them filthy and grimy.
Then in 1968, the city’s sanitation workers went on strike. For more than a week, trash cans overflowed. Garbage mounds piled high on sidewalks and spilled into the streets like some dystopian nightmare.
Plastic bag makers donated thousands of bags to help clean up the mess, and New Yorkers never looked back, said Steven Cohen, a Columbia University dean specializing in public affairs.
“It had to do with convenience,” he said. “After the strike, the sanitation workers preferred the modern advance of lighter and seemingly cleaner sealed plastic bags.”
Plastic kept more odors in, compared to the old metal bins. A worker could grab the neck of a bag and easily fling it into a truck.
But Democratic Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has deemed trash bag mounds Public Enemy No. 1 in his well-documented war against the city's notorious rats.
Rats have little problem getting into a plastic bag. Durable bins with closing, locking lids should, in theory, do a better job of keeping them out.
The bin requirement, which took effect Nov. 12, comes with its own challenges. Among them: Finding a place for large, wheeled bins in neighborhoods where most buildings don't have yards, alleys or garages. Landlords and homeowners also have to collect the empty bins and bring them back from the curb in the morning — something you didn't have to do with plastic bags.
Caitlin Leffel, who lives in Manhattan, said residents of her building had to hire someone “at surprisingly high cost” to bring out the bins the night before and bring them back in three times a week.
“I know there are problems with the way this city has collected trash for years,” she said. “But the way this program has been rolled out, it has not taken into account many of the nuances of living in New York City.”
Building superintendents are also grumbling about the added work of bringing bins back from the curb.
“It’s completely rearranged our lives,” says Dominick Romeo, founder of NYC Building Supers, a group of building managers that recently rallied in front of City Hall against the new requirements. “Folks are running around like crazy.”
Eventually, the largest residential buildings — those with more than 31 units — will have their own designated container on the street. New trash trucks built with automated, side-loading arms — another innovation that is already common in many other countries — will then clear them out.
The upgrades should make pickups easier and cleaner, even if it might take longer for trash collectors to make the rounds, says Harry Nespoli, president of the union representing some 7,000 city sanitation workers.
For now, he says, workers are still tossing trash into their trucks manually, which has its own downsides.
“Some places, they’re not even using bags. They're just putting their trash into the bins,” Nespoli said. “It's going to take time to get everyone to do it the right way, but at the end of the day, it's our job to pick it up.”
Tisch believes New Yorkers will eventually come around to the new reality.
City officials, for now, are issuing written warnings for non-compliance. Not everyone knows about the new rules yet. But come Jan. 2, fines ranging from $50 to $200 will kick in.
“No one wants to live on a dirty block,” Tisch said. “No one wants to walk past a heaping mound of trash and trash juice when they are leaving to go to work or they are walking their kids home from school.”
Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
A person walks in front of trash bins, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A sanitation worker collects trash, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A sanitation worker throws trash to the sanitation truck, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - Empty garbage cans sit on a Harlem street in the Manhattan borough of New York, Feb. 11, 1968, as a sanitation worker removes the last of a mountain of refuse after a sanitation strike. (AP File Photo)
FILE - Garbage piles up on the roof of New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel during a strike by private garbage collectors, Dec. 4, 1981. (AP Photo/David Bookstaver, File)
FILE - Rubbish is seen piled up in a New York City street on the third day of a strike by sanitation workers. Feb. 6, 1968. (AP Photo)
A person walks next to the trash bins, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Piles of trash line a sidewalk, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A person walks next to the pile of trash, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Sanitation workers collect trash, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
