Stratford Market was a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, located in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Opened in 1879 by the Great Eastern Railway as a competitor to

Spitalfields Market Spitalfields Market is a traders' market as well as a food and art market located in Spitalfields, Central London. Traders began operating around 1666, after the Great Fire of London, where the market stands today. The Spitalfields regeneration p ...

in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, the market closed in 1991 and consolidated at the

New Spitalfields Market New Spitalfields Market is a fruit and vegetable market on a site in Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest in East London. The market is owned and administrated by the City of London Corporation. The market is Europe's leading horticultural m ...

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

. The site is now home to Stratford Market Depot.

History

Stratford Langthorne Abbey Stratford Langthorne Abbey, or the Abbey of St Mary's, Stratford Langthorne was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1135 at Stratford Langthorne — then Essex but now Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. The Abbey, also known as West H ...

, a Cistercian monastic abbey was founded in 1135 on the site. The abbey survived until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. In 1879, the Great Eastern Railway opened a new wholesale fruit and vegetable market at Stratford to rival

, and the nearby railway station was renamed Stratford Market on 1 November 1880. To serve this market, a large goods depot was located south of the station on the western side of the railway line. Additionally, a coal depot served the Patent Victoria Stone Works. In 1907 the market depot became the centre for the distribution of bananas in London with

Fyffes Fyffes plc () is an Irish fruit and fresh produce company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The Fyffes brand is most closely associated with the banana industry, although it is applied to a wide range of fruits and fresh produce, including the ...

and Elders both having depots on the site. The railway depot closed in the 1960s although the sidings were used for storage of withdrawn rolling stock for a number of years afterwards. After 112 years, the wholesale market closed on 13 May 1991, moving to a new purpose built site in

Today

The market buildings and sidings were demolished in 1992 to make way for the Stratford Market Jubilee line depot. To commemorate the former use of the site as a fruit and vegetable market, the new facility was named after the old market. Other areas of the site are in industrial and commercial use. The nearby railway station reopened as part of the

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Lo ...

in 2011 as Stratford High Street.

External links

Historic photos of Stratford Market

London Borough of Newham Heritage Service The London Borough of Newham Heritage Service is a public service run by the London Borough of Newham. It runs the Newham Local Studies and Archives Library in Stratford, London and administers the Newham Photos website and the former collections o ...

References

{{coord, 51.5344, 0.0008, display=title Food markets in the United Kingdom Wholesale markets in London Stratford, London Demolished buildings and structures in London Buildings and structures demolished in 1992