The development is the latest Millennium Commission-funded project to be surrounded in controversy, following the financial woes of the Dome and the structural problems of the Millennium Bridge, which was designed by Lord Foster, the architect of the British Museum's new glassroof.
Greenwich Hospital Estates, which has owned the market since 1849, plans to build a 104-room hotel, provide office space and replace the market's canopy with a glassroof, but keep the original structure.
The Riverside Museum is an enormous shed of zinc and glass in the shape of a giant stylized S. The roof is bunched in folds, and at each end are glass walls that bring in plenty of light.