Picture the City: Mansion House

The Stocks Market was the main fish and meat market for the City of London. It was cleared in 1737 to make way for the building of Mansion House.

The market was re-built on Farringdon Street in 1829, changing from a fish and meat market to selling fruit, vegetables and herbs

By moving the market out of central London, the local working class population no longer had easy access to the market’s produce. Their long working hours meant they had no time to go out of their way to buy food, which led to an increase in roving street vendors.    

There’s been a church here since medieval times. This version was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and was finished in 1679. The north door was bricked up 6 years later to prevent the smell of the Stocks Market’s slaughterhouse from wafting into the church.   

Since 2017, there has been a significant growth in payments using debit cards over cash. This trend has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, when card and contactless payments became the preferred method. Since 2020, five out of six payments are cashless.

However you pay, the Bank of England’s job is to make sure there is enough cash to go around. The Bank oversees the payment systems which process millions of electronic payments, including credit and debit card transactions, every day.

Despite suffering slight damage during the bombing raids of the Second World War, Wren’s version of the church was restored and still stands today. It became a Grade I listed building in 1950.

Following the construction of the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange, the area around the Stocks Market became a prestigious location. Mansion House was completed in 1758 and built in the Palladian style.