The New Spitalfields

A royal visit to the East End in poignant circumstances offers a glimpse of the Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market

With King George V seriously ill with septicaemia, his consort Queen Mary opens a 10-acre extension to Spitalfields market in this newsreel item. The market's stallholders provide a warm welcome, including a mighty ship laden with fruit and vegetables, and the Queen tours the stalls with the Lord Mayor, in his ceremonial regalia, by her side. The market's situation in the East End of London meant that the royal delegation passed through slum streets not usually graced by such visits.

In 1991, the fruit and vegetable market moved to a site officially known as New Spitalfields in Leyton, east London. The Old Spitalfields Market is still open, a large covered area with restaurants, bars and stalls selling arts and crafts. King George, meanwhile, never fully recovered from his bout of septicaemia, but continued in frail health until his death in 1936.