The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-03-02
Londou's Fish Market.

Biilingsgate according to Joeilrey of Mon.
mouth, derives its name from Belin, king
of the Britops, who built waters gate there
iOi u. G. 1t is the one only market for
fish is London, and has occupied its
present site in Thames street, about
800 yards east Of London bridge, and
adjoining the west side of the custom
house ever since 1899. 1t was formerly
IAN elegant Italian structure" with tall
oampanile, but Bunning's building has
now been superseded by the new market,
opened for trade July 20, 1877. The new
oampanile has disappeared, but the river
iacade stu adheres more or less to the l,al-
ian gothic legend. 1t represents uniform
frontage of two lofty stories, the center por-
ton being thrown little back. The wings
are occupied by taverns, at each of which Is
daisy. fish ordinary. All along the front
runs broad floating stage, to which come
the iish-ladeE craft. Steamers, broadly and
strongly built, convey empty trunks and
supplies OF ice out to the North Sea and
distribute them to the tlshing.smacks,
from which they receive the trunks, ="
already filled, two round trips usually
being made within the week. All sorts
and conditions OF vessels and boats besides
these larger craft are employed in the trade,
Conspicuous among them being the Dutch
cel.schnyta, bluff and eccentric vessels. OK.
qusitely clean, built OF oak, scraped and
polished till 1t is as slippery and shiny rs a
like gold.
The landing process begins at the stroke
oi q m, the fish being carried ashore by
the Licensed porters, who in their short
DAY, OF I'VE hours often make wages of el
sterling. The great hall occupies the whole
2 ground iloor Of the center building and is
lot OIL IN lao stands, at each Of which sales
SO on many. OF them by auction, making
a most nlolerable Babel. About
so tons of fish arrive daily
by water, and about twice That quantity by
rail packed In ice in great iron.Dound and
pHlockcd boxes twelve or fifteen feet long,
six or eight feet wide and three feet deep,
All this haste be carried on mems shoulders
10 the stand, and then, when 1t has been
dsposed Of, conveyed in u similar manner
10 tho vehicles Of the purchasers, and all
within four hours, as after 0 O'Clock the
street must he kept clear tor the regular
day traffic. The SAFE of shell fish goes on
in the basement, where there are provided
large coppors in which the purchaser can
have his fish boiled by steam in three.bushri
crates, the process occupying from ten to
twenty minutes. There are about |, 100 Ii.
oensed porters, Besides the clerks, police,
etc.
The subject Of B.llingSgite has engrossed
public 4 tention on several occasions during
The last few yeas Nainly did the Baroness
Durdett'Coutts present the city with Co.
lumbia market hoping to ease Billings gate
oii,s intolerAble pressure; neither purchaser
nor seller would no to Baroness road, Il.
and though the market established by the
Great Eastern Railroad company at Can.
ningtown has been much more successful
BillingSga,e remains virtually the only fish
market, not alone in London, but OF a very
lar % portion OF England. Upon It's incon'
vcnienoes n writer in the Quarterly Re
view wakes eloquent, AMI his parable is
taken up by another writer in the Lon.
don Telegraph. "Let IL be distinctly under
stood" says the latter, that the only
approach from the land side to Billingssu,e
Is through Lower Thames street, O
,horoughfare which Is % feet wide, and
along which only two streams Of traffic car
How. Han accident OF the most trivial
kind happens, the whole of the fish and
foreign fruit traffic is brought to q stand
still. Six vans, and no more than six, cau
unload side by side at the same time. The
Ash marke, opens Ut 5 a. m, before which
hour no ilsh are allowed to be sold, and
clo,es at . q. NJ, when all the vans, carts