West Smithfield has been known as ‘Smethefelde’ or Smoothfield. It was an open space used for jousts, tournaments, and executions as well as a market. West Smithfield is where Sir William Wallace was put to death in 1305. The public garden was opened in 1872.
There is a lot of redevelopment going on in the buildings on the west side of West Smithfield, and many of the buildings are currently scaffolded and covered in canvas.
Most of the south side of West Smithfield is Bart’s Hospital
More scaffolding covers the buildings between Nos. 58 and 64 at present. Hills Chambers at No. 64 West Smithfield, right on the corner with Long Lane, was converted in 2000 into 17 flats in four sizeable upper storeys, above a ground-floor bar. This is a fairly grand building with stone facing all the way up, quoins, and no less than three cornices. The windows have rather strange ornamental wooden sections attached to the outsides of the windows, which look like someone cut them out of ply wood with a fret saw for a school project.
