Carving out tradition in the City

THE working day begins at 4am, ending 12 hours later at 4pm, or 5pm on Fridays. David Jones, 28, a butcher in the Leadenhall Market in the heart of the City, says you get used to the unsociable hours.

Mr Jones has been a butcher all his life and says it is in his blood. His father owns a butcher's shop in Kent, where his younger brother also works. He wears the traditional uniform - blue and white striped apron, white overalls and straw boater - although the sprig of mistletoe in his hat band is a seasonal addition.

R S Ashby, where Mr Jones works, is a 'proper' butcher. It offers pigs' trotters complete with toenails. White rabbits dangle from hooks, still sporting eyes, nose, ears, tail and fur.

The butcher, which opens at 4.30am to serve cooks and cleaners, has been in the market for almost 50 years. But a meat and fish market has occupied the site since the 14th century, in a series of courts behind the grand lead-roofed City Mansion (literally, the Leaden Hall) on Leadenhall Street.

The Corporation of London took ownership of the Market in 1411 but the wrought iron and glass roofed building that houses it today, painted in maroon and cream with ornate plasterwork of fruit, vegetables and flowers, was designed only in 1881.

It remains one of the few places in the City, amid the sandwich shops and wine bars, where 'sensible' food can be bought. As well as the traditional meat and fish, poultry, fruit and vegetables, dairy produce and specialist foods are on sale.

The Corporation of London's programme to restore Leadenhall Market, which began in 1990, is almost finished. The slate roofs have been renewed, granite paving blocks laid to the road, and the pavements replaced with York stone paving. Period lighting has been installed and the timber- glazed roof trusses repaired.

(Photograph omitted)