Greg Lawrence delivering his speech at Butcher’s Hall

THE chairman of the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association used a formal breakfast this week to complain about delays to the opening of the Museum of London on the Smithfield site.

Speaking on Wednesday in the presence of Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons at Butcher’s Hall in Bartholo­mew Close, Clerkenwell, Greg Lawrence warned that “the market must continue to flourish until we can move, or there will be nothing to move,” as he criticised delays to the museum project.

The poultry market closed last month, marking the beginning of the end of meat being sold at the historic Clerkenwell site, with just two buildings remaining.

“We hope to see [the Museum of London] open in just two years’ time,” said Mr Lawrence. “All the delays caused by the City, must be owned and resolved and let us learn that lesson at last: the most expensive decisions are the decisions deferred.”

Paul Stratis of Central Meat Ltd with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress and Greg Lawrence touring the market on Wednesday

It emerged in May that parts of the museum would open up to two years later than planned because of spiralling costs and “construction inflation”. An original price tag on the scheme of £150million is thought to have risen to £500million, according to Building Design magazine. The market is due to relocate to Dagenham Docks in east London in 2028 as part of a regeneration of the area by the City of London.

The museum closed at its original site in December and Mr Lawrence said the “abysmal business credentials and a deliberate series of decisions and interventions” by a series of “self-selecting, self-serving groups” had cost the City £300million in delays and cost overruns.

After listening to Mr Lawrence’s concerns Lord Mayor Nicholas Lyons, whose year-long tenure ends next month, joked: “Chairman, I think we really ought to get off the fence from time to time.”

He praised the traders, after a tour of the market.

A statement released by the museum said: “Negotiations between the City of London Corporation and Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association to gain vacant possession of the Poultry Market building concluded later than expected and a consequence of this is that we will now phase the project opening.”