The marketplace beneath the big railway viaduct near The Shard is Borough Market: one of London’s oldest. According to its own self-promotion, the market dates back to the twelfth century, when it was located at the southern end of the original London Bridge. Traders travel from far and wide to visit the market; a close friend of the family recently told me of his father regularly walking a ten-mile round trip with a handcart from south London to purchase supplies here.

Its current location close to London Bridge railway station dates back to 1756, since when it has benefited financially from continued expansion of the city’s railway network. The market is obliged by the 1756 Borough Market Act to be on this site, so whenever the railway companies have needed to build and extend their viaduct over the market, the Trustees have been fully compensated.

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