Billingsgate Market in 1900

Billingsgate, which would soon absorb Shadwell, its rival fish-market, as an overflow to relieve the tremendous congestion of its own traffic, was an interesting place to visit in 1900, but this necessitated very early rising and supreme indifference to being jostled by not over-clean individuals.

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Throughout the day it was quiet enough, but there was little to see, and walking about was not pleasant, owing to the vigorous sluicing of the floors with water.

The best time to see this market was in the early morning, when perpetual motion was the characteristic of the place; from the steam-carriers moored in the river, along the double gangway that connected the vessels with the quay, files of porters incessantly passed into the market, each man with a "trunk" of fish on his head, which he deposited near the different auctioneers' stands.

The "bidding" proceeded in an apparently leisurely way - the buyer sampling the fish by picking first one and then another out of the bulk, handling them for an instant, then flinging them back with a heavy flop - but as a matter of fact, the rapidity of these auction sales was astonishing, 2000 trunks being sold, as a rule singly, in under three hours.

After passing through five different hands (so we were told on good authority), ie the fisherman's, the carrier's, the salesman's, the "bummaree's" or middle-man's, and the retailer's, and having borne all market tolls and dues, the ordinary kinds of fish could be purchased at one penny per pound, and the prime at sevenpence.

When the big bell tolled as the clock struck five, the market opened, and in an hour the West-end fishmongers had "secured the pick."

Then came the costermongers' turn-and by ten o'clock all was over for the day.

Below the main floor were the spacious shellfish vaults where millions of whelks, cockles, and mussels were sold, while in one corner were the vats for boiling lobsters and crabs.

Outside on the river front, the scene was always animated; and out in the stream, on special moorings that had been theirs for centuries, were the deep-welled Dutch galliots, varnished and gaily painted, that brought a large proportion of the morning's supply of eels to the Metropolis.

Next: London's Markets in 1900: the Foreign Cattle Market, Deptford