Borough Market and the Floral Hall

Recycling the Past - A Tale of Two Markets
By Jo French - Archivist, Greig + Stephenson, Architects of The Floral Hall Portico Building

This is a tale of two markets whose fortunes have diverged - one turning its back on its market origins, the other consolidating history and future in a flourishing trading present. Its leading character is the Floral Hall, part of which now forms the lynchpin in the regeneration of the Borough Market.

The Floral Hall was designed in 1858 by Edward Middleton Barry on the instruction of Frederick Gye, then the manager of the Italian Opera at Covent Garden. The theatre itself had been destroyed by fire in 1856, and Barry had been commissioned to design a new one. Gye's vision was ambitious, and a new market hall for exotic plants and flowers was added to Barry's commission. Probably with his tongue firmly in cheek, the architectural historian, Nicolaus Pevsner, later described the Opera House as having been 'placed with such wondrous disregard of decorum right next to the Floral Hall'.

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