The buildings in this photo offer a marked
contrast in architectural styles! The one on the right is the old Billingsgate
fish market on the north bank of the River Thames near the Tower of London.
The site was used as a fish market from at
least the 13th century, when fish were landed at a wharf and sold to
traders, although other goods were sold here as well.
From 1698 it was laid down that only fish
would be sold here. The building in the photograph dates from the 1870s.
It became the custom for Billingsgate
porters to wear large flat hats on which loads of fish were balanced. The name
Billingsgate also became used to describe the sort of abusive and
expletive-laden language that they tended to use!
The site was abandoned in 1982 when a new
market was opened further down-river, which allowed the original building to be
restored to its former splendour.
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