Charterhouse Street is a street on the north side of Smithfield 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 road forms part of the City’s boundary with the neighbouring London Boroughs of Islington and Camden. It connects

Charterhouse Square Charterhouse Square is a garden square, a pentagonal space, in Farringdon, in the London Borough of Islington, and close to the former Smithfield Meat Market. The square is the largest courtyard or yard associated with the London Charterhouse ...

and

Holborn Circus Holborn Circus is a five-way junction at the western extreme of the City of London, specifically between Holborn (St Andrew) and its Hatton Garden (St Alban) part. Its main, east–west, route is the inchoate A40 road. It was designed by the en ...

, crossing

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 ...

and running along a number of historical sites, including Smithfield Market. The nearest

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

stations are Barbican near the east end of Charterhouse Street and Farringdon further west. Farringdon station also provides a connection to

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

and

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

rail services.

Notable buildings

Current

Several

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves gourmet comfort food. The term was coined in the 1990s, though similar brewpubs existed during the 1980s. Etymology The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coined in 1991, when David ...

s line the street, including the Fox and Anchor. The formerly- DJ Mag #1 club

Fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not th ...

nightclub is located at No. 77A. Charterhouse Street is also the home of a 31 MWe combined heat and power plant operated by Citigen ( E.ON) and located within and beneath the former PLA cold store.

De Beers

International diamond corporation De Beers has been headquartered at No. 17 since 1979, except between 2017-2020, though the street has homed De Beers since the 1930s. According to

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...

, at the height of its power, over ninety percent of the world's rough diamonds were held in the building, and by 2016, it housed over US$5 billion (£ billion, equivalent to £ billion in ) worth of gems in its underground vaults. After moving to

Carlton House Terrace Carlton House Terrace is a street in the St James's district of the City of Westminster in London. Its principal architectural feature is a pair of terraces of white stucco-faced houses on the south side of the street overlooking St. James's Pa ...

in 2017, plans to sell the building were proposed. The building was leased back on a long-term deal, with the intention that both De Beers and its parent company,

Anglo American plc Anglo American plc is a British listed multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper ...

, would move into the building by 2020. Following renovations by London architecture and design firm MCM, Anglo made No. 17 its global headquarters in 2021.

Smithfield Market

The 19th century Grade II listed Smithfield Market, designed by Victorian architect

Sir Horace Jones Sir Horace Jones (20 May 1819 – 21 May 1887) was an English architect particularly noted for his work as architect and surveyor to the City of London from 1864 until his death. He served as president of the Royal Institute of British Architec ...

, is the dominant architectural feature of the area. The market, along with

Billingsgate Fish Market Billingsgate Fish Market is located in Canary Wharf in London. It is the United Kingdom's largest inland fish market. It takes its name from Billingsgate, a ward in the south-east corner of the City of London, where the riverside market was or ...

and

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 ...

are expected to move to a new consolidated site in Barking Reach. The

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

plans to move into the General Market Building on Smithfield when possible, vacating its nearby Barbican site in December 2022.

Previous tenants

The street was formerly home to several refrigerated warehouses serving Smithfield Meat Market including the Central Cold Store, the Metropolitan Cold Stores at 77A and Port of London Authority Cold Store. The site on the corner of Farringdon Road was occupied by the 1960s Caxton House which was demolished in 2009 as part of the Farringdon station extension. Caxton House demolition

References

Streets in the London Borough of Islington Streets in the City of London Smithfield, London Odonyms referring to a building {{London-road-stub