Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-04-20
London Fish Market.

don bridge and adjoining the west side
Of the Custom House ever since 1899.
IL was formerly ian elegant Italian
structure" with a tall companile, but
Bunnings building has now been super
seded by the new market, opened for
trade July 20, 1877. The campanile has
disappeared, but the river facade still
adheres more or less to the Italian gothic
legend. Ii presents uniform frontage
i Of two lofty stories, the center portion
being thrown little back. The wing
are occupied by taverns, at each OF
which is n daily fish ordinary. All
along the front runs a broad floating
stage, TO which come the fish-laden craft.
Steamers. broadly and strongly built,
convey empty trunks" and supplies OF
ice out tn the North Sea. and distribute
them TO the tishing-smacks, from which
they receive the trunks" already filled,
two round trips usually being made
within the week. Al sorts aud cOndi.
tons of vessels and boats besides these
larger craft are employed in the trade,
conspicuous among them being THE
Dutch eel-schuyts, bluff and eccentric
vessels, eNquisitely clean, built of oak,
scraped and polished til 1t is as slippery
and shiny rs n waxed floor, with copper
bolts that glisten Ike gold.
The landing process begins at the
stroke of five n. M, the fish being carried
ashore by the licensed porters, who in
their short "day" Of five hours often
, make wages of one pound sterling. The
great hall occupies the whole ground
hoor of the center building and is let oil
into one hundred and forty stands. at
each OF which sales go on, manyOf them
At auction, making a most intolerable
Babel About eight hundred and TWEEN
ty-fve tons of fish arrive daily by water,
and about twice that quantity by rail.
packed in ice in great iron-bound and
padlOcked boxes fifteen feet long. six or
eight feet wide three feet deep. Allthis
has To be carried on mems shoulders to
The stand, and then when it has been
disposed Of, conveyed in a similar man
ner to the vehicles Of the purchasers, and
all within four hours, as after nine O'Clock
the streets must be kept clear TO: the
regular day traffic. The sale of shell
fish goes on i'm the basement, where
there are provided large coppers in
which the purchaser can have his fish
! boiled by steam in three-bushel crates,
the process occupying from ten 10 TWEEN
~ minutes. There are about one thou
sand one hundred licensed porters, be.
sides the clerks, police, etc.
The subject of Billingsgates engrosscd
public attention on several occasions
during the last few wears. Vainly did
The Baroness Burdett-Coutts present the
city with Columbia Market, hoping to
ease Billingsgate Ofits intOlerable pres.
sure, neither purchaser nor seller would
20 to Baroness road, f. and though the
market established by the Great Eastern
Railroad Company at Canningtown has
been much more successful, Billinsgate
remains virtually the only fish market
not alone in London, but of very
large portion of England. Upon its in
cOnveniences writer in the Quarterlu
ReCicU wakes eloquent, and his parable
is taken up by another writer in the
London Telegraph. .1Let it be dis.
tinctly understood" says the latter,
THAT the only approach from the land
side to Billingsgate is through the Lower
Thames Street, thor1rghfare which is
twenty-eight feet wife, and along which
only two streams of traffic can How. II
an accident of the most trivial kind hap.
pens. the whole fish and foreign fruit
traffic is brought to n stand-still. Six
vans, and no more than six, can unload
side by side ut the same time. The fish
market opens ut five a. m, before which
hour no fish are allowed to be sold, and
closes at nine n. m, when all vans. carts
and barrQws, sometimes amounting 10
nearly four thousand in number, have TO
be cleared out of the city in order 10
make way for the regular traffic of the
streets. The width Of the river opposite
to Billingsgate left open for navigation
does not exceed two hundred feet. In
front Of the market on the water-side
there is large floating pontoon, but the
steamers are not allowed TO come along.
aide II TO unload, being compelled to liz
off ut a distance of one hundred feet from
the market-quay, and to land their fish
along planks thrown out from the
steamer to barge, and from this barge
To the Heating pontOOn.' Every pound of
fish brought by steamer and landed from
the river at BIllingsgate. is carried along
these planks upon mems heads. Only
two roads-one from and one 10 the
stcamers-are permitted 10y the market
authorities-that is, by the corporation
To exist, and as the men have no choice
but TO follow each other. il is obviously
impossible to land the large quantity of
fish before the market closes N nine in
the morning The result is that fresh
fish Is often thrown away because II will
not keep until five o'clock the following
morning. Spencer Wapole. i'm his re-.
port To the home office, stated that.
thanks 20 the inadequacy of the Lower
Thames Street, the vans arriving from
the railway stations and the carts of real
dealers arriving 10 buy make the land
approaches to Billingsgate impassable.'
He adds that the vans. instead of being
unpacked, are forced TO move on and to
take their chance next day. One van,
whose case was exceptionally unfortu-
nate, returned in this way, not only time
after time. but day after dav, for eleven
days. The fish which it contained was.
OF course, ultimately condemned. -
While the supply of fish in the ocean Is
practically ineNhauStible, and one Lon.
don dealer announces that he could fur.
nish the market with four hundred tons
of fish a day to retail TO the working
classes at three-pence pound, it is i'm.
possible to land anything Ike supply.
What makes the situation less tolerable
is that it is extremely doubtful whether
in reality the monopoly upon which BIZ.
lingsgate insists has any warrant in law.
Cor. " Y. World.
Now and Then.