Step into Leadenhall Market on a weekday and the painted ironwork, glass roof and cobbled lanes feel as though they belong to another century. The site has been a place of trade for far longer than that. This short history draws on the market’s own account of its past, so dates and claims below are as that history gives them.
A Roman beginning
According to the market’s history, the Romans began their conquest of Britannia in 43 AD and settled in London soon after. Around 70 AD the first forum was built at Leadenhall. About 100 AD it was rebuilt as what the history calls the largest basilica forum north of the Alps. The forum and basilica served both civic administration and as a marketplace. A pier from the basilica’s south arcade was uncovered in the basement of 90 Gracechurch Street during construction in 1880–82.
The medieval market
The market’s recorded origin is given as 1321, when it became a meeting place for poulterers as the Cheapside poultry market overflowed. In 1377, traders from outside the City were granted extra rights to sell cheese and butter. The history says that Richard “Dick” Whittington acquired the building’s lease in 1408 and the site in 1411, then gave it to the City. From 1440 to 1449 a two-storey quadrangle designed by John Croxton was built, and afterwards all trade took place inside its arcade.
Rules, rights and the Great Fire
The market was tied to the working life of the City. The history records a beam for weighing wool subject to the royal tronage tax being fixed there in 1463, leather sales for Londoners being restricted to the market in 1488, and a cutlery monopoly being granted in 1622. The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed much of the City, including parts of the market. It was rebuilt soon after and, the history says, became a covered structure for the first time, divided into the Beef Market, the Green Yard and the Herb Market.
The Victorian arcade
The building most visitors see today dates from 1881. City Architect Sir Horace Jones was asked to design a “respectable arcade” for the poultry market, and his wrought iron and glass building replaced the earlier stone market. The history gives its cost as £99,000, with a further £148,000 spent on the surrounding approaches. It says Jones drew on the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, and that the building’s crooked ground plan follows medieval rights of way. Extensions followed in 1885, and the market was listed Grade II in 1972.
Who runs it now
The market’s history says the City of London Corporation has run the market since Whittington’s gift in 1411, and the Corporation owns and manages it today.
Why it still matters
Leadenhall shows how a single patch of ground can carry many layers: a Roman civic centre, a medieval trading hall, a post-fire market and a Victorian showpiece. If you visit, look up at the roof and then down at the lanes. Both tell part of the same story.