Borough Market and the Floral Hall

The Floral Hall as originally built was a delicate cast iron and glass facade, with a dome and barrel vault, supported on a brick structure. The cast pieces, made by ironfounder Henry Grissell of the Regent's Canal Iron Works, are dated 1859 and the building was completed in 1860. Architecturally the Floral Hall was admired at the time and favourably reviewed in the Architects Journal of the day, but unfortunately aesthetics had taken precedence over practicality and it was never a great commercial success. The huge glass dome may have looked impressive but it effectively turned the building into a giant greenhouse - not the perfect conditions for storing fresh cut flowers.

The flower traders preferred to remain on a rival site to the south (now the London Transport Museum) and the Floral Hall was given a more glamorous new function as a tea party and ball space - to be frequented by nobility visiting the adjacent Opera House. But balls were to go out fashion and from 1878 the hall bumped along as a foreign fruit market. The building survived the Blitz but was severely damaged by fire in 1956, resulting in the loss of its dome and roofs and leaving its future in doubt. It was saved physically when fierce local opposition prevented the wholesale redevelopment of Covent Garden Piazza, but the relocation of Covent Garden's wholesale market left the Floral Hall functionally high and dry.

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