3-021-090 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Columbia Market, Bethnal-Green [in London], built by Miss Burdett-Coutts, opened on Wednesday, 1869. Market and '...set of model dwellings for working-class families...The beneficent objects Miss Coutts has in view...are to supply the surrounding poor with wholesome food at a fair rate; to bring the producer and consumer into closer communication with each other; and to promote habits of industry and thrift among the humblest class of traders...the shops shall be occupied by farmers or their agents, who will be their own salesmen, and thus free their customers from the penalties inflicted by their dealing with the middleman...Each dwelling...contains parlour, kitchen, scullery, store, closets, and four bed-rooms...The third or topmost story is carried up as a tower and contains large filtering-cisterns, which supply all the buildings with water...The floor of the hall has an area of 2600 superficial feet...[There are] small shops, lined with Irish marble, for the sale of meat, fish, and poultry; above are galleries for the sale of flowers and fruit. The buildings are substantially constructed of yellow brick, with Portland-stone cornices and copings...Mr. H. A. Darbishire is the architect, and Messrs. W. Cubitt and Co. are the builders'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.