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Hungerford bookshop, Hungerford, Berkshire, uk

Lost London: Hungerford Market

In 1669 Hungerford Inn, the townhouse of the Hungerford family, burned down. Sir Edward Hungerford obtained permission to hold a market within the burned-out shell, converting the remains of the building into shops and a covered piazza. The venture did not go well, so Sir Edward decided to start selling off parts of the market, with buyers including politician Sir Stephen Fox, and architect Sir Christopher Wren. The market continued to perform poorly – by some accounts, it regarded as a more of a nuisance than a convenience. It was eventually purchased by the newly formed Hungerford Market company in 1830.

The dilapidated old market was demolished, and the company acquired enough adjoining land and property to build a new market, stretching from the Thames towards the Strand. Of Italianate design, it was divided into three sections. At its northernmost end, an open court housed butchers’ shops, whilst the middle section of the market was a great hall, where fruits and vegetables were sold; both of these sections sat above storage vaults. The last section, the fish market, was at a lower level, and located closest to the river to enable an easy supply of fresh fish.

The new market opened in 1832; a suspension bridge was built in 1845 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to connect the market to Lambeth on the south bank. In 1851, Hungerford Hall, a venue for lectures, opened next door; the same year also saw the arrival of ice-cream entrepreneur Carlo Gatti at the market, one of the earliest times ice cream was made available to the general public.

Despite its central location and variety of sellers, Hungerford Market struggled to compete against the more specialised markets of Covent Garden and Billingsgate. When Hungerford Hall burned down in 1854, the market was badly damaged, and it was subsequently sold to the South Eastern Railway in 1862, who promptly levelled the site to make way for Charing Cross railway station. Brunel’s bridge was also demolished, and replaced with the Hungerford Railway Bridge (now flanked by the Golden Jubilee bridges), its name the last trace of the lost market.