Billingsgate Fish Market

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The original open air Billingsgate Fish Market in the early 19th century. Boats delivered fish to this small inlet of the Thames and business was conducted on the quayside.

Billingsgate Fish Market, in east London, is the United Kingdom's largest inland fish market. It takes its name from Billingsgate, a ward in the south-east corner of the City of London, where the riverside market was originally established. In its original location in the 19th century, Billingsgate was the largest fish market in the world.^[1]

Billingsgate Wharf, close to Lower Thames Street, became the centre of a fish market during the 16th and 17th centuries but did not become formally established until an Act of Parliament in 1699.^[2] In 1849, the fish market was moved off the streets into its own riverside building, designed by J. B. Bunning and built by John Jay, which was demolished around 1873 and replaced by an arcaded market hall designed by City architect Horace Jones and built by John Mowlem & Co. in 1875.^[3] This building, known as Old Billingsgate Market, is now used chiefly as an office and corporate events venue.

The writer George Orwell worked at Billingsgate in the 1930s, as did the Kray twins in the 1950s.

In 1982, the fish market was relocated to a new 13-acre (53,000 sq m) building complex on the Isle of Dogs, close to Canary Wharf. Most of the fish sold through the market now arrives there by road, from ports as far afield as Aberdeen and Cornwall.

The infamously coarse language of London fishmongers made "Billingsgate" a byword for crude or vulgar language.^[4] One of its earliest uses can be seen in a 1577 chronicle by Raphael Holinshed, where the writer makes reference to the foul tongues of Billingsgate oyster-wives.

The market is depicted during Tudor times in Rosemary Sutcliff's 1951 children's historical novel The Armourer's House.

Billingsgate Market is open from Tuesday to Saturday. Trading commences at 5 a.m. and finishes at 8:30 a.m. Security for the market is provided by the private Market Constabulary.^[5]