3-021-635 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Opening of Columbia Market [in East London], built by Miss Burdett Coutts: the Archbishop of Canterbury speaking, 1869. View of the '...public and formal opening of this magnificent building, adjacent to the model dwellings in Columbia-square, recently provided by the generosity of Miss Burdett Coutts, at a cost of £170,000...for the accommodation of the poor and populous district eastward of Shoreditch...There was an immense assembly...Miss Coutts...was received with most enthusiastic cheers...the Archbishop of Canterbury addressed the crowd in the quadrangle, and in brief and simple language dwelt upon the benefits which Miss Coutts had conferred upon the neighbourhood, not only by this munificent gift of her market, but by her model lodging- houses, by her sewing-school, and by all the efforts she had made and was still making year after year to better the condition of the poor of Bethnal-green...A procession was formed, which passed round the building; and everywhere, wherever a glimpse of Miss Coutts could be seen, she was cheered till the large quadrangle echoed again...The ceremony from first to last was eminently successful, and in its enthusiasm was quite an exception to the usual routine'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.