Foreign Cattle Market
The Foreign Cattle Market in Deptford was one of the two great livestock markets of London; from it came about half the capital's supply of freshly killed meat. Situated at the former royal Deptford Dockyard on a bend of the River Thames and owned by the City of London, all animals came from overseas, were landed by cattle boat, kept under quarantine conditions, and had to be slaughtered within 10 days of disembarkation. None could leave the market alive: the purpose was to stop the importation of animal diseases. Besides cattle, the market handled sheep, pigs and a few others. It could shelter 8,500 cattle and 20,000 sheep at a time, and had 70 slaughterhouses.
More than a set of buildings in Deptford, it had trading links with four continents: part of what has been called the first globalisation. Cattle were brought there from the great grasslands of the world: initially, from Western Europe, Austria-Hungary and the steppes of the Russian Empire 30° to the east; but later, and mostly, from the Great Plains of America, literally being rounded up by cowboys. Such was the volume and quality of the trade that it had an appreciable impact on the livestock industry of the American and Canadian West. Boats also brought live animals across the equator from the pampas of Argentina, and even from the other side of the globe: Australia and New Zealand.
In stormy weather numbers of animals were fatally injured, washed overboard, or jettisoned to save the vessel; others were stifled to death under closed hatches. Prior to the sea voyages most had endured long journeys on tightly packed cattle trains. Both on trains and ships severe methods were used to make recumbent cattle stand up—in case they were trampled to death. The intercontinental traffic in live animals was not actually necessary, because it was cheaper to import chilled meat, which was of good quality. Yet the Foreign Cattle Market survived for 40 years; possibly because of irrational prejudice, possibly because butchers could pass off Deptford-killed meat as Scotch or English meat, which sold at a premium.
Background: London's cattle markets
The end of Smithfield as a livestock market
For centuries the main cattle market for London had been held at Smithfield. There being no refrigeration, butchers bought an animal at the market, and slaughtered it themselves. The site was small and by the Victorian era the volume of trade had increased to the point that it was badly overcrowded and a public health nuisance. Driving cattle to Smithfield through the thoroughfares of the metropolis e.g. Oxford Street was bad for traffic congestion and endangered life and limb.Hence in 1855 Parliament moved London's livestock market to a site in Islington. Later, Smithfield acquired a new role: it was rebuilt as a dead meat market; the one that stands today.
The Metropolitan Cattle Market
For live cattle, the new Metropolitan Cattle Market was in Copenhagen Fields, Islington.A growing population and increasing money wages created a demand for more meat. The British farming industry, protected from competition, could not satisfy the demand. In 1842-6 the Conservative government of Sir Robert Peel—as in its repeal of the Corn Laws—had legislated to allow all foreign cattle to be imported duty free. It was the beginning of the free trade era.
By railway the Metropolitan Cattle Market received livestock not only from most parts of Great Britain and Ireland, but increasingly from the Continent. John Gamgee, a veterinary scientist, warned that free trade in animals was dangerous because it would import diseases—had already done so. But the commercial interests were too powerful, and the trade continued.
As European rail links improved, these cattle came from as far away as the plains of Hungary and, eventually, Russia. That country had never been free from cattle plague, an infectious disease highly mortal to immunologically naïve cattle. It got into the Metropolitan Cattle Market and rapidly spread to most parts of Great Britain.
The 1865 cattle plague: need for a second, quarantine market
The cattle plague epidemic of 1865-7 has been described as the most dramatic event in 19th century agricultural history. Believing it to be a divine retribution for the sins of society, the Archbishop of Canterbury demanded a day of national humiliation.Little was known about rinderpest in Great Britain and it took two years to eradicate. It did not help that the germ theory of disease had yet to be established. Quarantines and the mass slaughter of infected herds led to agitation against the foreign cattle trade.
Wrote Charles Dickens:
New laws followed. They encouraged the City of London to open and run a second metropolitan livestock market exclusively for imported animals, to be known as the Foreign Cattle Market. It was appreciated that, not only rinderpest, but pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease were contagious threats.
Unless convinced that a foreign country was disease-free, the Privy Council was authorised to "schedule" it, which meant put it on a greylist. Animals from that country, while not banned outright, must be landed at this new market, and nowhere else. It was to operate under quarantine conditions, and no animal was to leave it alive, but had to be slaughtered within 10 days.
The Foreign Cattle Market: location, design and opening
Since the new market must be in a port, a suitable site on the Thames had to be chosen. There was lobbying for the market to be on the river's north bank, since many traders, especially the butchers of Whitechapel, did not want to have to travel to south London to buy their meat; but there were few adequate sites and access to these was poor. Eventually the defunct royal dockyard at Deptford was chosen. Here in times past Elizabeth I had come to knight Francis Drake aboard the Golden Hind, and Peter the Great of Russia had studied shipbuilding.The Deptford site comprised and had a river frontage of. It was situated on a bend in the Thames, at the bottom of Limehouse Reach. It was designed to receive up to three cattle boats at once, which might conceivably arrive at any time, day or night. Hence three large, immensely strong, timber piers were constructed for disembarking cattle. Piers were provided with platforms at two levels, so that animals could be discharged no matter what the state of the tide. At low tides the water depth was at least, thought to be sufficient for most steamers. These piers still stand today, though they have been interconnected.
The architect was Sir Horace Jones, designer of Smithfield Market and Tower Bridge. Since time was short, Jones took a minimalist approach. The site was not cleared: the existing dockyard buildings were preserved and adapted as necessary. The dockyard had a tidal basin surrounded by three ship-building sheds, each as lofty as Charing Cross station. By connecting these together Jones obtained a cattle lairage building comprising a pentagonal horseshoe with open sides facing the river and the landing piers. To the east another lairage shed had its own pier. Animals were provided with water troughs and hay racks, and the lairs were brilliantly lighted at night by gas lamps. There was enough covered accommodation for 5,000 cattle and 14,000 sheep. Later it was enlarged, and could accommodate 8,500 cattle and 20,000 sheep. Admiralty storehouses were converted into abattoirs, comprising some 70 slaughterhouses.
The demise of the old naval dockyard was regretted by many, and some features dating to Henry VIII were preserved. By order of the City officials, a board was put up bearing the following inscription: "Here worked as a ship-carpenter Peter, Czar of all the Russias, afterwards Peter the Great, 1698."
The market was opened for business in January 1872. In 1871 nearly half of cattle and sheep imported into the UK had been sold live at Islington, but by 1880 most were slaughtered at Deptford.
Adoption of refrigeration
That animals had to be slaughtered within a few days of landing, posed a challenge. Their meat would not keep — especially in hot weather — and had to be sent to market quickly, even at sacrificial prices if that market should happen to be glutted. Domestic farmers could avoid the loss by keeping their cattle back. It was not an option for foreign cattle traders, and it made their business risky.Accordingly, the City decided freshly killed meat should be chilled; the first plant was inaugurated in July 1889. A refrigeration machine, made by Alfred Seale Haslam of Derby, drove dry, very cold air through a series of chilling rooms. Carcases on hooks were conveyed to these rooms directly from the slaughterhouses on overhead rails. Each room could hold 125 sides of beef. In less than 24 hours the warm carcases were chilled to slightly above freezing point. The dryness of the air removed surface moisture.
It is now known that, not only the chilling, but the drying of meat surfaces inhibits the growth of micro-organisms.
Market life
The market was surrounded by a high boundary wall. Services inside included bank branches, a postal telegraph office, and the market's own pub, the Peter the Great.Trading
It was not an auction market. Trading was by private bargain, and in live animals only. Exporters consigned cattle, sheep and pigs to salesmen who worked on commission. Salesmen and buyers intermingled around the animal pens. Market days were Mondays and Thursdays, but there was nothing to stop animals being sold in their lairs on other days, and this was often done, especially when a shipload arrived late.Weighbridges were seldom used: it was a matter of professional pride that cattle weights were guesstimated. A journalist described it for Australian readers:The buyers were wholesale butchers, who had access to slaughterhouse space on the premises, generally renting it by the year. Slaughtermen, paid by results, killed and butchered their purchases for them within the 10 days required by law; the buyers took away the meat, offal, hides and fleeces: most of the meat they resold at Smithfield. By the end of 1887 some 9.4 million animals had been landed at Deptford.