Playwright Alan Bennett has signed a 2,600-name petition calling on the heritage minister to save Smithfield Market.
Architects John McAslan & Partners are proposing to fill the market’s interiors with shops and offices while retaining most of its facades. On the last day of a consultation on the plans, Bennett said: “Smithfield was the scene of many martyrdoms — this would be another.”
Campaign group Save Britain’s Heritage says the McAslan proposals would “mutilate” the market and is backing a rival scheme drawn up by regeneration specialists Urban Space Management. This promises to retain the entire structure.
USM founding director Eric Reynolds has written to the City of London Corporation offering to take the crumbling buildings on a 90-year lease and pay £700,000 annual ground rent. He said they could be repaired and fully occupied within five years.
The application will go to the City’s planning committee in the next two months. Mr Reynolds said: “The plan as we propose offers financial value to the Corporation and a social value to those who live work and visit London… a full retention scheme is an extremely attractive and sustainable proposition.”
The USM plan has also been sent to English Heritage.
