The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-09-02
BILLINGSGATE.


Market OF London.
BilIingsgate fish market is the best
abused institution in London, and yet
its sturdy health is unimpaired. Hun
dreds of years have passed since this
was first declared free and open
market. To-day 10000, 900 people are
dependent on it for their fish supply,
and the combined efforts Of its enemies,
from the Royal Commission downward,
do not seem TO be able TO effect any
radical change in its condition or con-
duct. Men of experience in the fish
trade confidently declare that il can
never be removed from its traditional
home
The average cost at Billingsgate of all
except the rarest kind OF fish Is frac-
tion OF over one penny pound. 1t has
gained in value ere it reaches the con-
sumer 800 per cent. The process Of
this remarkable growth is inexplicable,
but the consumer has an obvious remedy.
BY the grace of his deceased majesty
King William III. any person can visit
Billingsgate and buy his own fish. Let
US describe the process.
The laggard sightseer who lets mid
day overtake him before he seeks the
famous fish market will find it dirty,
malodorous, foresaken to the scavengers,
who sluice and swill its remotest corners
in a vigorous way that BODIES ill for
trespassers. To see Billingsgate at its
best one must be up betimes. while the
streets are dim and silent.
At 8 o'clock the market opens, and
from either side the steamships and the
wagons bring their fnny freight into Bill
vivid picture Of industry. A thousand
porters run TO and fro, till the 200 rough
stalls that fill the floor space begin to
groan beneath the weight Of turpot, brill,
soles, John Dory, mulet, plaice, had
dock, cod, skate, roker, whiting, stur-
geon, hoke, dabs, thornback and CUR
nard, according to the season. The
work Of the fish porters is extremely ar
duous, but well paid as such work goes.
A porter earns as much as 10 shillings for
his few hours toll. Fish porters are as a
rule rough fellows and free drinkers.
In round numbers 100, 900 tons of fish
pass through Billngsgate each year,
about two-thirds OF this aggregate ar
riving by land and one quarter by water.
The chief source of the fish supply is the
North Sea, which specialists declare to
I be inexhaustible. The trade is carried
on by boats or smacks working in fleets
on the Dagger bank or off the German
coast, and also by boats fishing singly
nearer home, which return at short inter.
walls to port, say to Grimsby or Var
mouth, whence their fish is conveyed by
train to Billingsgate.
Fish that arrives by land is usually
consigned direct to commission agents.
They in turn sell it by private contract
to the "bommarees' or middlemen, who
break up the ninety pound packages
into smaller lots to suit the needs Of
their customers, ranging from the West
end fishmonger to the East-end coster.
The second channel of the Billings
gate trade, the river, is different in its
methods. The fleet that fish the North
Sea are away from hone for weeks and
even months together Fast steamships
wait on them from time to time and
bring their catch to London, the voyage
out and home taking about seven days.
Two such steamships arrive in the
Thames most mornings. the fish they
bring being generally sold at auction by
the appointed agents Of the fishing com
panies. Round the auctioneer and his
clerk thick ring of "bommarees'
presses.
The rapid bidding is to a layman un-
ineligible, but apparently >1ery clear to
the bommarees, who acquire all the fish
up at auction in an incredibly short
space Of time, and then put it through
the same process of retailment as the
land borne fish. The rapidity by which
sales by auction are effected may be
gathered from the fact that shipload of
5000 trunks of fish is disposed of, gen
orally by single trunks, in less than three
hours, the prices recorded being the
prices current of tho whole market.
So fish comes to its ultimate consumer
through five hands-those Of the fisher
man, the carrier, the salesman, the bonn
maree and the final retailer. - London
Black and White.