Morning journal and courier., 1892-10-01
wAKEMAN,s WANDRRINGs.

l
this ia my busy day Puck.
|
wAKEMAN,S wANDRRINGs.
London's Billingsgate-The Greatest
| Wholesale Fish Market in The
| world-Older Than Authentic Brit.
ish History-Its Ancient Fish wive,
| Are No Mountaineering Surround.
ings and Odd Characters.
| LONDON, Sept. 10.
| To the Editorof the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
You can fairly smell Billingsgate mar.
ket, the greatest wholesale fsh-market OF
London, and the most important ash,mar.
ket in all the world, long before you can
see 1t. It is not an unpleasant odor. II
has hint of the sea air In 1t. Tar and
oakum are suggested. Floating to your
senses, along With the coming Of the first
rays of the morning sun broken by the
grim and lofty monument, 1t tells more
than of the stuffy market and its steam
ing throngs. 1t carries the fancy pleas
antly along past London's grim waterside
structures snd the webs of spsrs and rig
ging, down the widening Thames, and on
past pretty Nargate to the wide free reach
es of the blue North sea There in that
wondrous sea harvest field from Dover to
upper Norway are rocking the fisher fleets.
In olden days, indeed not more than a
quarter of a century ago, these sent their
''oatches" direct to the London market.
And pretty sight it must then have been,
when the fleet came up here to the old Bill
lingsgate wharf, just under the shadows
of historic London Bridge; the Dutch
built eel boats, with their bulging polished
oaken sides half hidden in the river mist;
punts packed with founders, and small
closely y-crowded baskets ranged along the
seats; scores of oyster punts filled with
gray masses of eand and shell; weather
beaten luggers packed with herring, cod
and ling; and all about the wharf and
swarming like flies aboard all manner of
closely anchored fishing craft, sailors, fish
ermen, costers, Billingsgate fishwives, and
fine ladies, too, engaged in the chaffering
and bantering of eager selling and buying.
But that day is past. The olden color
and brightness are gone. Hard mercantile
thrift and modern methods have banished
the fine ladies who, in gentle stunning"
mood, made their own purchases at Bill
lingsgste, and took back into choice Lon
don society the wondrous sayings of the
Billingsgate women whose tongues were
the readiest and wickedest In all the world.
The fishwives are gone, aud their only ex-
| 80 1al al
way, Ireland.
Steam vessels fcurry about the North
sea grounds, secure the fsh where they
are taken and bring them to the mouth of
the Thames. Here other larger fast sail
ing steam craft are laden, and these, vary
ing in number according to the season,
daily bring the vast fish supply of Lon
don, landing it at the very doors of Bill
lingsgate, much as the fish supply of New
York city is set down in the East river at
the back doors of ramshackle old Fulton
Market.
Billingsgate Market still stands just
where it has stood for centuries. How
many centuries no man knows. lcono-
clasts without reverence for even the anti
uuities of fish say fellow by the name of
Billing owned a wharf upon the same
spot in Queen Elizsbeths reign, and hence
its name. But have seen the preamble
to an act of parliament lin 10 and II of
William III J to make Billingsgate q free
market for the sale of fish, in which,
other "whereases" is one reciting that
'.Billingsgate has time out of miud been q
free market for all manner of floating aud
salt fish, as also for all manner of Holsters
aud shellfsh." Tradition, which is good
history when authorities differ, lends the
place its more fitting antiquity and insists
that it owes it's origin to Belin, an ancient
king of the Britons, who hourished four
| hundred years B. C, and who, observing
| an opportunity for gain, like true Briton
erected gate here through which the fish
ermen of his day, after floating upon the
Thames with the tide In the hide-bot-
| toned curraghs, were made to pass and
| and hence the name Belin's gate, finally
corrupted to Billingsgate.
However all this may be Billingsgate is
the Oldest wharf on the Thames, and that
/ is saying much for it on the line of age.
The market building and the ground 1t
stands upon is owned by the London mu-
nicipal authorities. Its river frontage is
two hundred feet, and its superficial area
is forty thousand square feet, affording
| sites for seventeen shops and two large
public houses. 1t is located in the densest
part of what may be termed wsterside
London, on the north bank of the Thames
Just above it to the west is old London
Bridge; a bridge probably better known
in the literature of fiction and travel than
any other similar structure in the world
Just below it to the east ia the new Tower
bridge, in process of construction for the
past six years. Immediately adjoining, tc
the west, are the great Levant and Spanish
fruit-markets, and on the other side, sea
ward, stands the huge Doric fronted Lon
don custom house. immediately opposite
across the Thames Oh the Surrey side, ID
the tremendous reach of the Surrey Com
mercisl docks, vast, grim, black and hall
in mist; and the Thames at this point be
tween London and Tower bridges is called
"the Upper Pool" 1t is said to carry hert
more floating traffic than any other react
of water approaching it in size upon th'
face OF the globe.
Owing to the denss massing of rivel
traffic at this point and the inconceivably
congested nature of the population, mar
| rowness of streets and seeming inextrica
bility of street traffic banking up sgains
and bemming in Billingsgate from all di
rections, it would almost seem that Lon
don would have long since found SOM
more accessible and convenient depot TO
the disposal of her enormous fish supply
| cG dik dltcLuplS IL oOanooh
or divert its trade have proven futile
stConservatism," tradition and even super
stition balk all efforts of this character
Dealers tell me they would go out of tn
business If they had to leave Billingsgate
Fishermen would not feel easy about thei
consignments to any new market. Cos
, ters have repeatedly told me that thei
best customers among the poor of th
East End would not buy or eat fish this
3 had not the time -honored seal of Billing
gate inspection upon it.
This popular feeling undoubtedly ha
= more than all else to do with two ruinor
| failures to locate this vast trade elsewhel
6 in London. A great market was not Ion
: ago established at Hungerford Stairs. B.
!! ing too tar up the river and too far frol
/ the dense masses of the East End 1t hs
: but brief existence. A line drawn mort
: and south through the center of Londo
= Bridge leaves a population of about ell
teen hundred Thousand to the east,
down the river, and about twenty-fo,
. hundred Thousand to the west. Hunge
e ford market was too far from the cost
T sellers and lowly buyers of the East En-
who, 1t will be seen, really control, rsth
;, than the well-to-do classes, the locality
:, London's fsh-market Another powerf