London Museum
Smithfield General Market and Poultry Market
Nineteen Bespoke Douglas Fir Stairs
The new London Museum project in Smithfield will transform two historic market buildings – the General Market and Poultry Market – into a world-class new museum, sitting at the heart of a dynamic new cultural quarter. The restoration safeguards the markets’ historical features while state-of-the-art fit outs accommodate museum functions, including exhibition galleries, interactive spaces, educational areas, and public amenities.
As part of the restoration, David Smith St Ives designed and supplied a total of nineteen full Douglas Fir staircases across six locations on the site, including the museum’s Learning Core, working closely in conjunction with Atlantic Contracts on the project.
The underside of the stairs were requested to remain exposed as opposed to being concealed via a more traditional plaster soffit, with the top of staircase treads and risers to be overclad with reclaimed Douglas Fir timber.
Our Douglas Fir ‘Architectural’ style staircases incorporated the use of a ‘Closed’ staircase stringer to the internal edges and a ‘Profiled’ staircase stringer to the external edges, concealed beneath the treads and risers. Stringers to both internal and external edges were pre-drilled where required to incorporate the use of integrated ‘Cranked Steel’ support, spanning through the underside of the quarter/half landing levels within the landing joist structure and concealed within the internal staircase stringers to achieve the ‘floating’ / ‘exposed’ look to the staircases designed by David Smith St Ives in accordance with details finalised with our engineers.
For the balustrading of the staircase, DSSI provided additional steel ‘spigots’ for support of the proposed balustrading, working closely with the customer and architects to engineer a system that would allow for installation of the balustrading components.
With the museum’s permanent galleries in the General Market scheduled to open in November 2026, a swift design, manufacture and supply was necessary. Designed and handcrafted at our 100,000 sq ft. facility in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, we ensured these stairs were delivered 100% on time, in full, to the client’s exact requirements, keeping the build to the programme requirements.
“I would like to thank David Smith St Ives for the commitment, professionalism and technical expertise demonstrated throughout the design and manufacture of the bespoke staircases for the Museum of London.
This project presented several significant engineering challenges, all of which were approached with a collaborative and solution-focused attitude. From redesigning elements of the staircases to incorporate concealed flitched plates spanning non-loadbearing walls, to developing hidden fixing details that achieved the architect’s vision of seemingly floating staircases, your design team consistently delivered innovative, practical solutions without compromising the aesthetic intent.
We would also like to recognise the exceptional commitment shown by your team over the Christmas period of 2025. Your willingness to accelerate both the design and manufacturing programmes to meet demanding project deadlines was instrumental in maintaining progress on site. Without your support, flexibility, and attention to detail, we would not have reached the position we are in today.
Throughout the project, deliveries were made on time and in full, the quality of manufacture was excellent, any issues encountered were resolved promptly and professionally. Your team remained responsive, proactive and a pleasure to work with from start to finish.
We would have no hesitation in recommending David Smith St Ives to others or in working with you again on future projects. The combination of technical expertise, quality craftsmanship, customer service, and commitment to delivering complex engineering solutions makes David Smith St Ives a trusted and valued partner.
Congratulations on delivering an outstanding product for one of London’s most prestigious construction projects.”
Simon O’Shea, Director, Atlantic Contracts Ltd
London-Museum-DSSI