Qualla: Smithfield, London https://qualla.com/smithfield-london en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Smithfield, London https://qualla.com/smithfield-london Smithfield, London: Introduction https://qualla.com/smithfield-london/ Photo credit Eluveitie, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 23 August 1305, the Scottish nobleman Sir William Wallace was dragged through the streets of London, brought to West Smithfield, and put to death in the open ground beside the priory wall. The crowd had come to watch. For perhaps a thousand years before, the same broad grassy field outside the City walls had hosted weekly livestock markets, summer fairs, and jousting tournaments. For five centuries after, it would host the killings of religious dissenters caught on the wrong side of England's shifting faith. Today the same patch of land carries London's only remaining wholesale market, a Grade II listed iron-and-glass cathedral to meat, and the oldest parish church the Great Fire failed to destroy. Few squares of ground in any city have absorbed more.

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Image: Eluveitie | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/gcpv-smithfield-london-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Smithfield, London: The Smooth Field https://qualla.com/smithfield-london/ Photo credit Public domain. Smithfield's name comes from Smooth Field, the medieval description of the broad grassy area outside London Wall that stretched east to the River Fleet. Easy of access and watered, it was the obvious place to drive livestock into the City, and a livestock market established itsel...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/gcpv-smithfield-london-the-smooth-field.mp3 0:06 2 full Smithfield, London: The Fair and the Tournament https://qualla.com/smithfield-london/ Photo credit Philip Norman, Public domain. From 1133 the Augustinian canons hosted the annual Bartholomew Fair, which began each year on 24 August. It was a four-day cloth-trading event and a pleasure ground at the same time, drawing crowds from every layer of English society. It ran for over seven centuries before the Ci...

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Image: Philip Norman | Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/gcpv-smithfield-london-the-fair-and-the-tournament.mp3 0:06 3 full Smithfield, London: Where the Reformation Burned https://qualla.com/smithfield-london/ Photo credit Jason Peper, CC BY-SA 2.0. The fields outside Newgate were also for centuries London's main place of public execution. Wallace died here in 1305. Wat Tyler, leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt, was killed at Smithfield by the Lord Mayor, William Walworth, on 15 June of that year. Most painfully, Smithfield...

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Image: Jason Peper | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/gcpv-smithfield-london-where-the-reformation-burned.mp3 0:06 4 full Smithfield, London: Plague Pit and Hospital https://qualla.com/smithfield-london/ Photo credit Kreepin Deth, CC BY 3.0. In 1348 the Black Death reached London. Walter de Manny rented 13 acres of land north of Long Lane from the Master and Brethren of St Bartholomew's Hospital to use as a graveyard and plague pit. A chapel and hermitage rose over the bodies, and in 1371 the land was granted to a ne...

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Image: Kreepin Deth | CC BY 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/gcpv-smithfield-london-plague-pit-and-hospital.mp3 0:06 5 full Smithfield, London: The Iron Cathedral https://qualla.com/smithfield-london/ Photo credit JamesK1987, Public domain. By the 19th century, Smithfield's living livestock market had become a public-health scandal. Pamphlets called it cruel and pestilential. Charles Dickens, in 1851, called it a Beast Market in the heart of London such as the French would never tolerate. An act of Parliament moved ...

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Image: JamesK1987 | Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/smithfield-london-wp/gcpv-smithfield-london-the-iron-cathedral.mp3 0:06 6 full