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London's 850-year-old food markets to close

bbc.co.uk

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Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#231

Post by DocTomoe »

roughly wrote: post #56
hnbear wrote: post #24

Statement from the City of London Corporation which is closing them down: > Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said the > decision represented a "positive new chapter" for the markets as it "empowers > traders to build a sustainable future in premises that align with their > long-term business goals". This is a great statement. Like firing people to free them up to find jobs that better…

Christ, yeah - I came here to post the same quote. What kind of horrific shit does one need to go through in life to become capable of uttering that kind of horseshit with a straight face?

Five weeks in any major corporation outside of IT, and you will be spewing that kind of talk like a machine gun. It's mind-numbing. Avoid the suits as if they were spreaders of the plague, because their brain-rot is not much better.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#232

Post by DocTomoe »

herpdyderp wrote: post #161
gyomu wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we shouldn’t be casting stones from the HN glass house, because literally every other startup here has a mission statement that sounds as ridiculous as this

I wish they didn't, I have such a hard time figuring out what any of them actually do.

Mission statements have the main function of obscuring that. It is safe to assume that the more obfuscating a mission statement is, the most likely the business goal is to steal investors' monies while finding another fool to buy the whole operation, ideally someone from the FAANG crew.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#233

Post by DocTomoe »

fecal_henge wrote: post #216
FredPret wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most economically valuable 0.6%

That value buys excellent public transport, and generally wages that let you trade in £1000 banger for £3000 one.

I don't know which planet you live on, but London's public transit is hellish on days where it works. The fact that there seems to be industrial action every other week, that the subway is slowly heating up, and major stations are virtually always overcrowded is not something I even take into consideration. Not when the local trains have a toss-of-a-coin chance of actually showing up at all, or even in a configuration that was originally planned, and not just half of the carriages.

I unironically had better public transit in third-world countries.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#234

Post by mock-possum »

Neil44 wrote: post #186
DrBazza wrote: post #175

The Corporation of London own the land Billingsgate is on. They've been looking to redevelop this for over a decade since the land's value is now magnitudes more than when it was built because of Canary Wharf and the new Canary Wharf Crossrail station. It's prime real estate land, possibly the best plot in London right now. And so is Smithfield, or at least the land that Museum of London is on, and they're moving to…

I'm sure they'll name the new luxury apartments nice names, that nod to the former history of the site.

> Welcome to Fish Market Flats, where history meets modern luxury! Nestled in the heart of the city, this iconic landmark has been reimagined into a vibrant mixed-use community that blends timeless charm with contemporary living. Once a bustling hub of maritime commerce, Fish Market Flats is now a beacon of urban sophistication, offering high-density condos designed to elevate your lifestyle.

> Picture yourself waking up to stunning city views, stepping out into a thriving community of boutique shops and artisanal eateries—all just steps from your front door. With thoughtfully designed interiors, cutting-edge amenities, and the character of a bygone era lovingly preserved, Fish Market Flats is more than a place to live—it’s a lifestyle, a legacy, and the future of urban living.

> Don’t miss your chance to be part of this extraordinary transformation. Fish Market Flats: Where History Finds Its New Home. Reserve your slice of history today!

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#235

Post by forgetfreeman »

refulgentis wrote: post #228
forgetfreeman wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh no, I'm watching it play out in realtime in local real estate markets. It's fucking with my retirement plans.

I hate to be rude, but, whether or not your retirement plan is going to plan has nothing to do with whether more housing makes prices go up. I'm honestly kinda upset you didn't have anything backing up that idea. I genuinely expect better from HN, and genuinely believed that maybe I had missed something at 35, after an econ degree before promoting getting into programming. I wouldn't have given the benefit of the dou…

You're arguing from a point of something you read. I'm arguing from a point of a market that I'm heavily invested in and monitoring daily. Get back to me when you've got a couple mil parked in residential real estate in a market where the kinds of development projects you're trying to provide cover for have been commonplace for a decade. I'll wait. Spoiler: you're going to find that both rents and purchase price both skyrocket.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#236

Post by lmm »

fakedang wrote: post #198
roughly wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christ, yeah - I came here to post the same quote. What kind of horrific shit does one need to go through in life to become capable of uttering that kind of horseshit with a straight face?

I mean, other countries would kill to preserve such long-lasting heritage, especially one that's in active use and very much a part of the city. But the English of late are exceptionally good at bending over and showing their rear-ends to new foreign overlords for paltry sums of coin.

> I mean, other countries would kill to preserve such long-lasting heritage, especially one that's in active use and very much a part of the city.

Nah. In China there wouldn't even be an announcement, you'd just turn up one day and it would be gone.

Tokyo famously redeveloped their fish market, and that was far more of a piece of popular heritage than either of the markets mentioned here.

This is no different from what happened to Covent Garden 40 years ago, and no-one sane wishes we'd kept that as a fruit and veg market.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#237

Post by lmm »

vegetablepotpie wrote: post #112
acadapter wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things people say in the era where comment fields have been removed from news websites (in the name of "avoiding misinformation")...

I’m not sure the comment fields are considered by media organizations or public figures… like, at all. I remember talking to a journalist about a series they were working on, they said the feedback they’ve gotten has been overwhelmingly positive and no one had anything bad to say about it. The comments on their articles were absolutely negative and vitriolic. I don’t think anyone with a shred of influence or responsi…

> I remember talking to a journalist about a series they were working on, they said the feedback they’ve gotten has been overwhelmingly positive and no one had anything bad to say about it. The comments on their articles were absolutely negative and vitriolic.

There are two quite different possible interpretations for that fact pattern.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#238

Post by lmm »

FiniteField wrote: post #219
tempusalaria wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that these are not culturally significant institutions and most people in London don’t care. Ordinary Londoners rarely use these markets, and they mostly sell to restaurants, and require major financial support. Not everything from the past is good. We don’t still run coal power plants in London just to get that historic smog. They were already planning to move both markets way out of central London (t…

Most people in London don't care because they are not English and have no connection with the thousands of years of history the city and country have. Only a third of the population has any connection at all to the London of the 1950s, never mind the 1100s. They are not stakeholders in its heritage, the explanation is as simple as that.

Nah. Even people who've lived in London for generations don't care if they're not in the food industry. Why would they?

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#239

Post by rgreekguy »

DrBazza wrote: post #175

The Corporation of London own the land Billingsgate is on. They've been looking to redevelop this for over a decade since the land's value is now magnitudes more than when it was built because of Canary Wharf and the new Canary Wharf Crossrail station. It's prime real estate land, possibly the best plot in London right now. And so is Smithfield, or at least the land that Museum of London is on, and they're moving to…

Britain keeps on having a bad record with preserving stuff, I see.

Re: London's 850-year-old food markets to close

#240

Post by travis_brooks »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #180
hnbear wrote: post #24

Statement from the City of London Corporation which is closing them down: > Chris Hayward, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation, said the > decision represented a "positive new chapter" for the markets as it "empowers > traders to build a sustainable future in premises that align with their > long-term business goals". This is a great statement. Like firing people to free them up to find jobs that better…

The reality is that almost no one makes any good money in the food industry. For a lot of people in that industry, if they tried to find jobs that better aligned with their skills (except in food), they'd likely be better off. A lot of people take jobs in terrible places and get complacent, maybe far too complacent. A healthy economy is one where money, people, skills, and intellectual property has high velocity , me…

Unfortunately nobody has solved the pesky problem that people need to eat at least once a day, so somebody has to work in the food industry. Getting rid of these central markets means smaller markets spread all over the country will do the same work, but likely making the food more expensive and the supply less reliable.
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