AP PHOTOS: Meat and greet: Historic London market counting down the years

LONDON (AP) — Norman Gregory is an institution within an institution. He’s been working at the historic Smithfield wholesale meat market in central London since 1961, witnessing first hand the rapid transformation of the capital over the decades.

And he’s mainly seen it at night.

As a young lad of just 16, Gregory started work at Smithfield, and bar one year when he decided to try something else, he’s been there as a seller ever since.

And he still loves it, as he readies to turn 80 next month.

“It’s a man’s world down here,” he said. “It’s all active, there’s something different every day.”

There is a routine though. The carcasses roll in to the market in vans starting around 10 p.m. The butchers and traders then do their thing, selling mainly to shops and restaurants, before finishing up at about 6 a.m.

And while most Londoners imbibe a cuppa tea — a coffee if you must — to get them ready for the day, Smithfield workers have been able to have a pint and a full English breakfast after they clock out because some local public houses have had special dispensation to open at the crack of dawn. “Early houses,” they have been dubbed.

But change is coming after the City of London Corporation, the governing body in the capital city’s historic hub, confirmed at the end of 2024 that it will bring an end to its responsibilities to operate Smithfield, as well as the Billingsgate fish market further east, both of which have existed in some shape or form since the 11th century.

The corporation and the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association, which represents the traders onsite, have reached an agreement to find a site for a “New Smithfield” within the M25, the road that circles London. The new site will continue to serve London and...