Billingsgate Market

The buildings in this photo offer a marked contrast in architectural styles! The one on the right is the old Billingsgate fish market on the north bank of the River Thames near the Tower of London.

The site was used as a fish market from at least the 13th century, when fish were landed at a wharf and sold to traders, although other goods were sold here as well.

From 1698 it was laid down that only fish would be sold here. The building in the photograph dates from the 1870s.

It became the custom for Billingsgate porters to wear large flat hats on which loads of fish were balanced. The name Billingsgate also became used to describe the sort of abusive and expletive-laden language that they tended to use!

The site was abandoned in 1982 when a new market was opened further down-river, which allowed the original building to be restored to its former splendour.