Putting up the shutters at Leadenhall

SOME OF THE City of London's longest-established shopkeepers have left Leadenhall, the country's oldest market, claiming they have been forced out by high rents and rates.

Their departure will leave the City market bereft of some of its most famous tenants just as the Corporation of London is planning to provide a £1m facelift.

Among those who have already left is Butcher Edmonds, which had been in Leadenhall since Victorian times. On the door of the abandoned butcher's shop is a forlorn note signed by Barbara Butcher, who took over when her husband died in 2000.

It reads: 'It is with great regret that after over 47 years of trading in these premises, due to increased rent, rates and maintenance, we are forced to relocate from these traditional premises to a more modern location within the Square Mile.'

With the exception of fishmonger HS Linwood and pubs such as the Lamb Tavern, established in 1780, the market has succumbed to the plague of chain stores such as Gap, Jigsaw and Body Shop that dominate Britain's High Streets.

The fishmongers still wear traditional clothes, with their exotic wares laid out for customers to inspect. There is a food stall nearby selling such London delicacies as jellied eels, at £2.20 a portion. But as a sign of the theme of modernisation that is running through the market, a nearby Japanese outlet is selling sushi and other Far East delicacies.

The butcher's shop of RS Ashby still has a hand-printed sign in its window, advertising prime Scotch beef, quality English lamb and dairy-fed pork. But John Kent, famous for its fruit and vegetables, has a notice in the window announcing the arrival of a shirt and accessories maker.

The market is dominated by fast-food outlets that are popular, judging by the lunchtime queues of office workers from buildings such as Lloyd's of London and the almost completed 'erotic gherkin' Swiss Re tower.

Scores of, mainly male, besuited drinkers spill out of pubs such as the New Moon into the covered and cobbled streets, soon to be torn up by the Corporation of London as part of its facelift.

Above the shops, some of the older names, such as solicitors Duval Vassiliades at No 73, survive. But the renovators appear to be at work at No 74, home of Anglo & Sud. The exotically named Diamond Resourcing is merely a recruitment specialist.

The market was created between AD100 and AD130 at the heart of the Roman Londinium. Today's Leadenhall owes its origin to Sir Horace Jones, the City surveyor and architect who created the facade and myriad passages in 1881. His present day counterpart, Ted Hartill, is in charge of the changes that will include new lighting, English Heritage-approved shop fronts and pedestrianisation.

Musical evenings are planned beneath the market's curved-glass and cast-iron roof. Fast-dating sessions will pull in the crowds, which will perhaps even rival those drawn in by the gladiatorial contests of the time that Leadenhall was created.