Bartholomew Fair (play) with the quality of the typesetting. Copies of the 1631 typecast were circulated, though whether they were sold publicly or distributed privately by Jonson is unclear. The play was published in the second folio of Jonson's works in 1640–41, published by Richard Meighen. The play is set at Bartholomew Fair, which from 1133 to 1855 was one of London's preeminent summer fairs. It opened on 24 August each year at Smithfield, in the northwestern part of the city. Smithfield, a site of slaughterhouses and public executions, was a fitting place for a fair that was part commerce and part spectacle.
Smithfield Show new Agricultural Hall in Islington, London, which had been purpose-built for it by the Club. The 1862 show attracted almost 135,000 visitors, a record, and in later years there were regularly more than 100,000. During and immediately after the Second World War, from 1939 to 1948, the show was not held; the Royal Agricultural Hall was requisitioned for the GPO in 1943. Annual shows recommenced in 1949, at the Earl's Court Exhibition Centre in Earl's Court, London; the last show was held there in 2004. It was the last major livestock show in London. The Royal Smithfield Club was named