The area that occupied Fleet Market was originally the Fleet River, or commonly known as the Fleet Ditch. The ditch was impassable by boats because of all the waste and animals that were encroaching the area. After the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666, the destruction of the ditch allowed “The New Canal” project to take its course as a new watercourse along the street. Unfortunately, the project and ditch sank more and created an open sewer. To address this problem, in 1733, the Corporation of London was granted authority by Parliament to create a road that arched over the ditch between the Holborn and Fleet Bridge. The stretch of road was called Fleet Market, currently Farringdon Street, and replaced the Stocks’ Market, which was located between Cheapside and Cornhill, on September 30, 1737. The free market was busy during the seasons of fruit and vegetables, fish, and crockery ware. The rest of the Fleet Market project was finally completed in 1766. The remaining part of the Fleet was covered over and the sewer-like stream flowed underground.
On June 7, 1780, known as “Black Wednesday,” the overly-zealous Protestant Gordon rioters attacked and burned Catholic toll-boxes, plundered, and destroyed account-books. Starting by successfully burning down the Newgate prison, the rioters headed down Fleet Street setting fire and destruction in their path towards the Fleet Prison, which faced the Fleet Market. Personal accounts mention that the fire blazed on three sides of the street. The next day, the organized mob has ceased and Fleet Street had to repair the damages at a great cost. In James Malcolm Rymer’s The String of Pearls, or, The Barber of Fleet Street: a Domestic Romance (1850), this location may have been referenced as the “Old Fleet Market” due to the damage that was orchestrated by the Gordon riots.