The former Woolwich Covered Market

Market hall, 1936, to the designs of the Horseley Bridge Engineering Company, incorporating the walls of the 1932 open-air market.

STRUCTURE and MATERIALS: a steel-framed, segmental-arch roof supported on steel stanchions encased in concrete and brick. The roof is clad in corrugated sheeting and glazing. The walls of the 1932 open-air market are built in London stock brick and have limestone dressings.

PLAN: the market stands on the south side of Plumstead Road. The building is rectangular in plan, with a span of 29, and c35m long.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation of the building faces north onto Plumstead Road. The dominant feature is its deep projecting fascia of white boarding with ‘PUBLIC MARKET’ inscribed in applied lettering. The elevation is divided into three sections by wide tiled stanchions; the outer bays have concertina shutters, and the central section is fully glazed, with multiple windows in replacement metal frames. The roof, clad in corrugated sheeting, recedes in a gentle arc, and has strips of glazing and a pitched lantern along the apex.

The building abuts other structures at either end, and its glazed gables rise above to the rear. On the rear elevation are a number of brick ancillary structures related to the 1932 market, with a pitched entrance leading into the main market hall.

INTERIOR: internally the main market hall is a single, open-plan space, and the principal feature is the roof structure. The steel framework is exposed; it consists of short channel-section members – Lamellae – bolted together in pairs to form a diamond lattice, braced with narrow purlins and tie rods. Mechanical and electrical services are attached to the framework, and there are metal domed light fittings. The segmental-arched gable ends are fully glazed with multiple lights in metal frames.

The roof is supported on steel warren trusses; that on the southern side is glazed, and is supported on brick piers, and on the north side, the truss is supported by four concrete stanchions. The brick wall of the original open-air market of 1932 stands detached from the piers on the south side, forming a narrow aisle beneath a lean-to roof. The walls contain two doorways with limestone architraves with circular mouldings at the corners and inscribed date-stones. They retain sliding timber doors.

The other structures internally relate to the 2018 conversion to a food market.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 13/02/2019