As London’s docks and prints have long gone extinct, manual labour–once part of the city’s life–is now barely kept alive by markets. With the steady expansion of the city’s financial centre, London’s historic markets have one by one been subjected to relocation. Smithfield Market, the last of the Corporation of London’s food markets to still operate from its historic Farringdon site, is due to leave the city centre by 2025 for a new location in Dagenham.

The proposal allows for the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association–the trade union representing the market’s working body–to compromise this forced emigration and relocate to a new location within the city. The building takes on a defensive stance, acting as an anchor for Smithfield’s legacy.