Facing the chop: One of Europe’s oldest meat markets set to close [Video]

As London sleeps through the early-morning hours, Smithfield meat market is a hive of activity. 

“We’re selling it to butchers, small supermarkets, caterers, hotels, anyone who wants to buy meat,” says Greg Lawrence. He’s worked there since 1966, building up a successful family business in the meat trade and becoming chairman of Smithfield Market Tenants Association. 

“We’re serving all London, the southeast of London, all the institutions, the prisons, the care homes, the hospitals, the schools – directly and indirectly. So, it’s very important.”

Opening every weekday at 3am, Smithfield is one of Europe’s largest and oldest wholesale meat markets. It dates back to at least the 11th century – at which point it was outside the walls of the young city – as an open-air market selling live animals from around the country.

In 1868, it relaunched as a wholesale meat market in a specially designed building, but little …