The History of the Market

Please scroll down the page for a timeline of the history of Old Spitalfields Market. We’ve also compiled background information into the names behind the eight gates leading into Old Spitalfields Market

Before 1700′s

AD 300/ 400

The site of a Roman cemetery.

1197

‘The priory of St. Mary of the Spittle’, a medieval hospital, is founded: the first part of the name ‘Spitalfields’ derives from the word ‘hospital’, which to the medieval mind was understood as ‘hospitality’, a place of rest as well as medicine.

1666

Following the Great Fire of London, thousands of displaced people camp on the Spital Fields.

1669

Samuel Pepys visits the Old Artillery-ground at Spitalfields, “where I never was before, but now by Captain Deane’s invitation did go to see his new gun tried, this being the place where the officers of the Ordnance do try all their great guns.”

1682

Charles II grants a Letters Patent to a silk thrower by the name of John Balch, allowing a market for flesh, fowl and roots in Spitalfields, an area known as a ‘stronghold of Noncomformity’

1700′s

Large numbers of Huguenots (French and Flemish Protestants) fleeing religious persecution settle in the area, bringing with them a new wave of skills. Their silk-making expertise will make ‘Spitalfields Silk’ into a world-famous export – and they also invent Oxtail soup.

1800′s

1880s

Mass Jewish settlement in Spitalfields combines with the invention of the sewing machine to launch the mechanized clothing trade – and introduces bagels to the area.

1875

Robert Horner, a former market porter, purchases at public auction the lease for the market.

1887

The ‘Horner Buildings’ are officially finished.

1888

Charles Roberts Ashbee, a founder of the Arts and Craft movement, opens his Guild and School of Handicraft at Toynbee Hall on Commercial Street, across the road from Spitalfields Market

1900′s

1900s

A new wave of mass settlement brings Maltese, Irish, Scots, West Indian, Somalian and Bangladeshi communities to the area.

1940s

Spitalfields fruit and veg traders club together and buy a Spitfire fighter plane to aid the war effort. They name it ‘Fruitaition’.

1991

The fruit and veg market moves to Temple Hill, Leyton in East London where it now occupies a purpose-built 31 acre site. “Old Spitalfields Market” takes its current form.

1999

Archaeologists discover the remains of a wealthy young pagan woman from Roman times in a decorated sarcophagus

2000 Onwards

2005

The new Spitalfields development at Crispin Place and Bishops Square opens next door to Old Spitalfields Market. Old Spitalfields Market wins the Time Out award for ‘Best London Market’ two years running.

2008

Restoration work, which will preserve the Horner Buildings for another generation, is fully completed.