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4 C O N T E X T 1 7 9 : M A R C H 2 0 2 4 Single span at Smithfield The completion of the restoration of the dome roof of Smithfield’s Poultry Market marks a milestone in the transformation of the historic markets site into the relocated Museum of London. Full Metal Jacket was the copper roofing subcontractor and Equans the project’s main contractor. In 2016 an international design competition paved the way for the Museum of London’s relocation to the former Smithfield Markets. Designed by Stanton Williams and Asif Khan, working with conservation architect Julian Harrap, the project is recasting the late Victorian General Market and 1960s Poultry Market to create the museum. The restoration of the copper dome roof of the Poultry Market has been funded by the City of London Corporation. Designed in the early 1960s by architect TP Bennet and Son, with structural engineering by Ove Arup and Partners, the roof (measuring 70 by 40 metres internally) was the largest single-span concrete roof in Europe at the time of its construction. Smithfield Market, covering almost 10 acres in the City of London, was originally designed by city architect Sir Horace Jones and built in the 1860s, and later extended. Beckford’s Grotto William Beckford’s hidden Grotto Tunnel in Bath is publicly visible for the first time in more than 100 years. A team of archaeologists and building experts have uncovered the original steps and retaining walls. They found various historic objects, including clay pipes smoked by the stonemasons who built the grotto in the 1820s. It is believed that at some point after Beckford’s death, the end of the Grotto nearest Beckford’s Tower was filled in, leaving the other end open to become what appears to have been a rubbish dump for a nearby Victorian villa. Beckford’s wealth, gained through his involvement with the transatlantic slave trade, enabled him to devote much of his time to designing and curating his tower and pleasure gardens. Beckford’s Tower was due to open in March 2024, with the underground grotto accessible to visitors as part of the museum experience. Hadrian’s Wall and Stonehenge Kati and John Preston write : In 2022 we visited Hadrian’s Wall for the first time; last year we introduced our Ukrainian guest Natalya to Stonehenge. These experiences made us think hard about the vices, virtues and balances of even temporary modern interventions at historic sites. We saw Housesteads at the wall on a grey, atmospheric July day. It immediately gave us the feeling of how alien this bleak frontier must have seemed to the Roman soldiers stationed there. There is a magic to seeing ‘The Stones’ on the skyline of the Wiltshire landscape, The Poultry Market’s dome roof was the largest single-span concrete roof in Europe at the time of its construction. (Photo: Equans) The Grotto Tunnel at Beckford’s Tower