Smithfield Poultry Market was constructed in 1961–1963 to replace a Victorian market building in
Smithfield, London, which was destroyed by fire in 1958. Its roof is claimed to be the largest
concrete shell
A concrete shell, also commonly called thin shell concrete structure, is a structure composed of a relatively Thin-shell structure, thin shell or Shell (structure), shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses. The ...
structure ever built, and the largest clear spanning dome roof in Europe.
Background
The old poultry market was built under the provisions of the
Metropolitan Meat and Poultry Market Act 1860 at the western end of
Smithfield Market, designed by Sir
Horace Jones in a similar style to the other market buildings. It opened in 1875 to the east of
Farringdon Road
Farringdon Road is a road in Clerkenwell, London.
Route
Farringdon Road is part of the A201 route connecting King's Cross to Elephant and Castle. It goes southeast from King's Cross, crossing Rosebery Avenue, then turns south, crossing C ...
but was destroyed by fire in 1958.
Design
The new poultry market was designed by architects
T P Bennett and Son. The structural engineers were
Ove Arup & Partners
Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...
, led by
Povl Ahm and
Jack Zunz. It was completed in 1963, costing £2 million.
The market traders opposed the original design, which had deliveries being made to the ground floor and trading on a first floor above. The replacement design has the trading on the ground floor, in a double-height market hall with rows of market stalls, and a first floor gallery around the inside for offices. Deliveries are made to nine delivery bays on each side, to the north and to the south, with hexagonal glass glazing blocks set in the walls. The building has a frame of reinforced concrete, clad externally with dark blue bricks. The basement includes storage and a public house, the Cock Tavern (now closed).
The design was intended to become a model that could be replicated across the whole Smithfield site, to replace the other Victorian market buildings, but in the event only the Poultry Market was built. It became a Grade II listed building in 2000. The building is no longer in use, and is due to become part of the Museum of London's relocation to Smithfield, along with the also disused Fish Market and General Market.
Roof
The concrete shell roof spans , with a double curvature sheet in the form of an
elliptic paraboloid
In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry.
Every plan ...
, mostly only thick but up to at the edges. It is claimed to be the largest concrete shell structure ever built, and the largest clear spanning dome roof in Europe. The shallow structure only rises in the centre, and is supported by
pre-stressed concrete
Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted i ...
edge beams with
clerestory glazing below, so it appear to balance on its corners. It is pierced by circular rooflights. The external roof surface and gables on each side are clad in copper.
Arup were previously involved in large concrete shell roofs at
Brynmawr Rubber Factory
The Brynmawr rubber factory is a now-demolished building which was situated in Brynmawr in Blaenau Gwent, Wales. It was designed and constructed between 1946 and 1952 by the Architects' Co-Partnership, a group of architecture alumni from the Arch ...
(1945–1951) and the
Bank of England Printing Works at
Debden, Epping Forest
Debden is a suburb in the civil parish of Loughton, in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. It takes its name from the ancient manor of Debden, which lay at its northern end. The area is predominantly residential, but is also the locatio ...
(1956), now operated by
De La Rue. The engineering calculations for the new roof were tested first with a 1/12 scale model.
The roof was constructed using over a thousand plywood
shutters, each with a different shape. The shell was cast first, and then lifted from its formwork as cables for the edge beams were put under tension. The concrete edge beams were then cast in situ.
File:Inside Smithfield market I, EC1.jpg, Inside the Poultry Market: ground flood
File:Inside Smithfield market II, EC1.jpg, Inside the Poultry Market: first floor
File:Cock Tavern, Smithfield, EC1 (3778332349).jpg, Entrance to the Cock Tavern
References
*
Smithfield Poultry Market, City of London British Listed Buildings
Smithfield Poultry Market Engineering Timelimes
20th Century Society building of the month, June 2003
Design of the dome shell roof for Smithfield Poultry Market ICE Proceedings, Volume 30, Issue 1, 1 January 1965, pp. 79–130
* From: 'The Metropolitan Meat-Market', Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 491–496. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45117
History of the market Smithfield Market
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Grade II listed buildings in the City of London
Buildings and structures completed in 1963
Smithfield, London