Leadenhall Market, A Beautiful Lunch
Built above a Roman forum, roofed in Victorian ironwork and still serving the Square Mile every weekday, Leadenhall Market has been feeding the City of London in one form or another for nearly 700 years. The architecture alone is worth the walk.
The Architecture Horace Jones designed Leadenhall Market as a functional building, not a monument and that is precisely why it has survived and thrived where other Victorian market halls have been demolished or hollowed out. The painted ironwork maroon columns, green trim, gold details was restored in the 1990s and has been maintained carefully since. The cobbled floors are original. The lantern clock at the central crossing point dates to the Victorian rebuild.
The market stands on the site of the basilica and forum of Roman Londinium the largest building north of the Alps in its time. Pair the visit with the London Mithraeum, twelve minutes west, for the most concentrated dose of Roman London available in an afternoon.
