Historic London, Leadenhall Market and Pizza Express

The city of London is full of culture, it has amazing listed buildings and has history that goes back to the first century. One such place in the East End of London is the Leadenhall Market a stone’s throw from Liverpool Street Station. The market was built on the site of a Roman Basilca in the first century. After the Romans left, sadly the site was left to ruins. It was only in the 1300 that it was relisted and it became a meeting place for poulterers and cheesemongers. It was in 1400’s that the Leadenhall market became the hub of the east end as it became the best place to purchase meat, game, poultry and fish.

As the market grew in popularity a granary and a chapel were added to the site and in 1463 the market became the most important centre of commerce as the beam of tronage and weighing wool. In 1488, the market grew bigger as the leather merchants set up there and in 1622 cutlery was also sold at the market. Sadly after so much growth, the great fire 1666 wiped out and destroyed many parts of the market. The market was rebuilt after the fire and it was divided in to three parts, the beef market, green yard and herb market and it continued to thrive. In 1881, the market had another refurbish and many of the stone structures were replaced with wrought iron and glass. The building was listed as a Grade 11.

In 1900 the market went through another restoration process and it had a Victorian setting with the roof and cobbles. The poultry market continued to thrive in the market until the mid-20 th century now the market is a modern retail centre with the Victorian features of cobbled floors, ornate glass roof and beautiful architecture reminiscing of the old London. The market has had some very famous people visit it such as Samuel Pepys, Charles Dickens and for those die hard Harry Potter Fans, the Diagon Alley scenes  from Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone were filmed in the market.

I had the opportunity to Visit and dine at the recently refurbished Pizza express set in Leadenhall Market. The restaurant is set in a lovely Grade two listed building. Its recent refurbishment has really enhanced the beauty of the building. The original stone features and wooden beams have been brought back to life and used to accentuate the décor. The restaurant has capacity of 165 seating indoors and 22 seating outside is spread over two floors.

It has been tastefully furnished  to fit in with the historic building . The use of  beautiful paintings, low lighting, mirrors and the addition of appropriate dining  booths and seating has given this pizza express a setting that is modern  but retaining the historic feel and mood of the market.

The restaurant is open Mon-Friday , since the area around is full of city dwellers and not much activity happens around there at weekends.

The restaurant also offers pizza making parties, hosts corporate parties and is available for private parties too.

Unlike any other pizza express restaurants I have visited this certainly was my favourite in view of the ambience, setting and décor.

The food was of course delicious too. The olives and sundried appetisers and the dough balls were a lovely start to the evening together with glasses of prosecco.


The pizza making class that followed was enjoyable and the chef was very funny and engaging. There was a good vibe during the pizza making session.

It was great to mingle with other bloggers as our pizza creations were cooked. My vegetarian pizza was cooked to perfection and was delicious.We finished off our evening with coffee, Baileys and Limoncello.

I was a guest of pizza express all the views and opinions are of my experience of the evening. I really enjoyed visiting the restaurant, the pizza making class was most enjoyable as was the food and drinks. At the moment pizza express also offers a 3 course Christmas menu. I would highly recommend visiting Leadenhall Market and dine at the Pizza Express it is a lovely experience.