Billingsgate fish market is open to all comers on Friday and Saturday mornings before 9.30. It is cheap, wholesale prices for most big fish. And prawns of all sizes. It is a working market not a gastro tourist venue. Floors are continually hosed down and crates moved at alarming speeds. Photography is not allowed except […]
Billingsgate fish market is open to all comers on Friday and Saturday mornings before 9.30. It is cheap, wholesale prices for most big fish. And prawns of all sizes. It is a working market not a gastro tourist venue. Floors are continually hosed down and crates moved at alarming speeds. Photography is not allowed except with a permit for good reasons. You need to be astute to pick the best fish, much of which goes early to restaurants. There is a car park or the nearest station is Canary Wharf about 10 minutes walk away through a futuristic and deserted world of deserted offices early in the morning…
The original site which dates back to the 13th century was on the Thames near Monument, now a spectacular events venue. The traders were known for their swearing as far back as 1577 when Raphael Holinshead (from whom Shaespeare borrowed much for King Lear) wrote that a messenger had “as bad tongue… as any oyster-wife at Billingsgate hath.” It passed into slang for many years that billingsgate meant bad language, but traders are more polite these days.
It is slated to move to Dagenham to a new pupose built site, because it is somewhat of an anachronism set in this new glass world with its murals, circus of brands and the traffic light sculpture by Pierre Vivant
