N. Kósa Judit - Szablyár Péter: Underground Pest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)

Fish, flesh and fowl down below - the cellars of the Central Market Hall

■ To build the ramp, even the basement walls head to be broken through

In Samu Pecz's conception the cellars played the dual role of storing foodstuffs in areas surrounded with wire meshing on the one hand and housing the sanitary installations of the market hall on the other. Here was the boiler room with its three steam boilers (the exhaust steam of which was used to heat the basement) and the equipment providing electric lighting; the lifts used for the conveyance of goods were also based here. The cellar was ventilated via ducts reaching the outer pavement in front of the basement windows.

Although enlargement of the hall was almost continually on the agenda for the entire, almost century-long, period that followed its opening, no major alteration was effected. But the condition of the building constantly deteriorated and the sight of the interior was also marred by the closed shacks raised in the 1960s. By 1991 it had become clear that the buttresses had become dangerous and the roofing also threatened collapse. The market hall was closed, and a decision was soon made regarding reconstruction, in its original form, of the entire building.

At the re-opening ceremony in autumn 1994, it was mainly the structures

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