London Museum opens doors to retail, office & leisure with agent appointed on Smithfield development

London Museum has today announced leasing opportunities at its new location, set in the historic Smithfield General Market in Farringdon. Leading retail and leisure consultancy Bruce Gillingham Pollard will manage the leasing for six distinctive units, that form part of a street-front parade around the much-anticipated new museum. One of the most ambitious cultural regeneration projects of the decade, the museum is set to open in 2026 and is expected to attract over two million visitors annually.

The units, known as the museum ‘Houses’, occupy a unique position around the 150,000 square foot General Market building, an architectural landmark designed by Sir Horace Jones, whose legacy includes Tower Bridge and Leadenhall Market.

The General Market will be home to London Museum’s permanent galleries exploring 10,000 years of the city’s history, as well as hosting a lively year-round events programme and temporary displays co-curated with Londoners. Circling the market, the Houses will benefit from frontages onto Farringdon Road, Charterhouse Street and West Smithfield. Each property retains its original character and design, with the potential to host independent retailers and restaurants, as well as office space for charities, social enterprises or other organisations. They will sit alongside the museum’s own F&B and retail offer, which includes a destination bar, restaurant and café.

Supported by excellent transport links, the new museum will be reachable in 45mins by a quarter of the UK’s population, including up to 400,000 daily commuters to Farringdon Station. Based in the heart of the historic City of London, the neighbourhood is home to leading global businesses Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Deloitte, and Goldman Sachs. It is known for a number of destination restaurants, the legendary Fabric nightclub, and heritage sites including the 900-year-old St Bart’s Hospital. The Barbican Estate sits just nearby.

The museum confirms Smithfield as a must-visit cultural destination, contributing an estimated £565m in GVA (Gross Value Added) to London and the UK's economy through economic growth and jobs. It is part of the City of London Corporation’s wider plans to make the Square Mile a place where people want to live, work, learn and explore – by increasing footfall outside core business hours.

Alec Shaw, Director of New Museum Project and Estate, London Museum, said: “From the beginning of this project, our vision for the museum has been to create something for London - with Londoners - that tells the rich and vibrant story of this city. These street-front spaces offer us an entirely new way to do this and we’re excited to work with partners who share our love for London, whether that’s music studios, independent retailers, charities, or favourite London brands. As we bring the market back to public use for the first time in almost four decades, we want to bring together a community that works in symbiosis with the museum and helps us shape a major new cultural quarter.”

Tracey Pollard, Founding Director, Leasing at Bruce Gillingham Pollard added: “This is truly a once in a generation opportunity to be part of a team reviving one of London’s most exciting landmarks to be a civic magnet once more. The Houses’ character, location, rich history, and positioning within a major cultural address, surrounded by global businesses, presents an entirely new concept to showcase London’s best brands.”

-ENDS-

For media enquiries please contact:

Ashton Bainbridge: [email protected] / 020 7814 5509

Izzy Finn: [email protected] / 07738018023

Leasing enquiries should be directed to:

Tracey Pollard – [email protected]

Alex Todd – [email protected]

About London Museum

London Museum tells the ever-changing story of this great world city and its people, from 450,000 BC to the present day. Galleries, exhibitions, displays and activities seek to inspire a passion for London and provide a sense of the vibrancy that makes the city such a unique place.

A fixture on London’s cultural scene since first opening in 1976, London Museum is moving house. It has now closed doors at its London Wall site in preparation for its relocation to a new home at Smithfield.

Designed by Stanton Williams and Asif Khan, working with conservation architects Julian Harrap, the new London Museum is one of Europe's largest cultural infrastructure projects and will preserve the historic Smithfield Market buildings for generations to come. The formerly derelict Victorian General Market, home to the museum’s permanent galleries, will showcase more of its internationally important collection than ever before when it opens in 2026. The Poultry Market, set to house the museum’s world-class learning centre, temporary exhibition spaces and collection stores, will open in 2028.

The launch of the new museum will mark a new chapter for Smithfield, one of the city’s oldest markets, where trading has taken place for almost a millennium. The first written record of ‘smooth field’ dates to the 1170s, by which time it was a bustling livestock market.

The market buildings were designed by Sir Horace Jones, the architect behind Tower Bridge, Billingsgate Market and Leadenhall Market. The state-of-the-art Meat Market opened on 24 November 1868, followed by the Poultry, General and Fish markets in 1875, 1883 and 1887. The General Market eventually closed in the 1990s, with the museum set to bring the building back into public use for the first time in almost four decades.

The six ‘Houses’ are one of the unique features of the new site, which also boasts the world’s first train line to run through a museum and a network of underground vaults discovered during the site’s development.

Alongside its principal funders City of London Corporation and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the new London Museum is supported by funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Goldsmiths’ Foundation, The Linbury Trust and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. A number of individual philanthropists and charitable trusts have also pledged significant support to the project. Global law firm DLA Piper is the project’s inaugural Corporate Champion.

• Press images available
• More about the new London Museum development
• More about the history of Smithfield Market available here and here