The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-02-15
A MORNING IN BlLllNCSCATE,
Everyday Scenes in the Most Famous
Fish Market of the World.

Billingsgate fish market is the best
abused institution in London, and We,
its sturdy health is uuimpaired. Hun
dreds of years have passed since this
was first declared q free and opeIf
market; today 10, 100000 people are
dependent on it for their fish supply,
and the combined efforts of its ene-
mics. from the royal commission down
ward, do not seem able TO effect any
radical change in its condition or con-
duet.
The average cost at Billingsgate Of
all except the rarest kind of fish is a
traction over penny pound. 1t has
gained in value ere it reaches the door
OF the consumer some 800 per cent.
The process of this remarkable growth
is lneXplicable; 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 midday overtake him before
he seeks the famous fish market will
ind it dirty, malodorous. forsaken to
the scavengerS, who sluice and swill
It's remoteSt corners in a vigorous way
that bodies Ill for trespassers. To see
BIllIngsgate at its best you must be
up betlmeS while the city streets are
dim and silent.
AT D o'clock the market opens, and
from either side the steamers and the
wagons bring their tnny freight into
Bllllngsgate, which, ut this moment
presents vivil picture of industry. A
thousand porters run TO and fro, till
the 200 rough stalls that ill the floor
space begin to groan beneath weight
OF turbot, brill, soles, John Dory, null /
let, plaice, paddock, cod. skate, roker.
whiting, sturgeon, hoke, dabs, thorn
back and gurnard, according to the /
season. The work of the fish porters /
is extremely arduous, but well paid. /
as such work goes. A porter earns as
much as ten shillings for his few hours |
toll. Fish porters are, as a rule, rough |
fellows and free drinkers.
In round figures 100, 900 tons of fish /
pass through Billingsgate each year,
about two-thirds of this aggregate ar
irving by land and one-third by water.
The chef source of the fish supply is
the North sea, which specialists de-
clare to be ineXhaustibe. The trade
Is carried on by boats or smacks work.
ing in fleets on the Dogger Bank, or
off the German coast. and also by
boats fishing singly nearer home,
which return at short intervals to
port, say to Grimsby or Yarmouth,
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
1t by private contract to the "bom- /
marees," or middlemen, who break up
the nlnety-pound packages into smaller
lots, to suit the needs of their custom.
ers, ranging from the west end fish.
monger 10 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 home for weeks.
and even months, together. Fast
steamers wait on them from time to
time and bring their catch to London.
the voyage out and home taking about
seven days. Two such steamers ar
rive in the Thames most mornings, the
fish they bring being generally sold at
auction by the appointed agents of the
fishing companies. Round the auc-
tioneer and his clerk thick RING of
"bommarees" presses. The rapid bid
ding is, TO a layman, uninteiligible.
but apparently clear to the "bommar-
ees," 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 with which
sales by auction are effected may be
gathered from the fact that Ship
oad of 5000 trunks of fish is disposed
Of, generally by single trunks, in less
han three hours, the prices recorded
1t these auctions being The prices cur ;
rent of the Whnla nnoriE1t