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EveryFish

Fish market, United Kingdom

Billingsgate Fish Market

Britain's largest inland fish market, moved from the City of London to Poplar in 1982.

Billingsgate is the United Kingdom's largest inland fish market. For centuries it stood on the Thames in the City of London, and its porters were famous for their leather hats that carried boxes of fish on their heads. In 1982 it moved to a new building at Poplar, near Canary Wharf. It still trades fish and shellfish from British ports and around the world from before dawn.

The trade

Merchants sell cod, haddock, plaice, sole, turbot, mackerel, salmon and much more to fishmongers, restaurants and the public. Much of the cod and haddock used for fish and chips in Britain is landed in Norway, Iceland and the Faroes rather than in British ports. Billingsgate also sells many fish for London's Caribbean, African, South Asian and East Asian communities.

A long history

Fish has been sold at Billingsgate since at least the 16th century, and the market was granted its status as a free market for fish by Act of Parliament in 1699. Its old building on Lower Thames Street, from 1875, is now an events venue. The City of London Corporation, which runs the market, has planned for years to move it again, and its future site has been the subject of debate.

Still to be written: Atlantic cod, Haddock, Common sole, European plaice, Turbot, Atlantic mackerel.

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