Reply With QuoteVery interesting. A realistic picture of Billingsgate. I used to work in The Wharf but am now in the City and walk past the old Billingsgate most days.
Thanks for posting.
Been numerous times and didn't realise they are moving. Tons of background/historic info and a superb bedtime read..
London’s famous fish market is leaving town, taking hundreds of years of tradition with it
Billingsgate fish market in Canary Wharf is one of the last vestiges of old London. Under its distinctive yellow roof, men barter over rows of iced fish with shiny eyes and gaping mouths. The wholesale market, set up by an Act of Parliament in 1699, is loved by tourists, history buffs and Londoners with a fondness for quirky corners of the city. Every morning before dawn breaks, a trail of aspiring chefs and fish enthusiasts go from stall to stall, before heading to the market’s fish school to gut and cook breakfast.
But within a few years this 13-acre site—along with its 500-strong workforce, 98 stands, two cafés and 800-tonne freezer store—will be moved outside the capital to make way for luxury housing. Not only will the last trace of the market disappear from Canary Wharf, but also many of its traditions—and indeed its jobs—are unlikely to survive the transfer east to Essex.
LINK
Fas est ab hoste doceri
Very interesting. A realistic picture of Billingsgate. I used to work in The Wharf but am now in the City and walk past the old Billingsgate most days.
Thanks for posting.
It was always gonna happen, once CWL bought the land adjacent to their estate there was only one outcome. It’s moving up the road to Leyton so won’t be a big loss the E14. Even though the market had been there since the 80’s it’s a newcomer really.
I’ve spent most of the last 30+ years in Canary Wharf and E14, but was not sad to move on to new pastures (Haarlem).
I’m now enthralled by the WeWork sag as they’ve taken on the lease on our old building in CW and are busy turning it into start-up/tech heaven.
My father started working in the original Billingsgate before the war and then when he returned from his stint in the army, continued to work there for many years and was a Member of The Fishmongers Company and became an Alderman and Freeman of the the City of London.
I remember well going to the original market with him a few times when I was a young lad and it was an amazing place to see, a tight knit organisation with some amazing traditions and a feeling of fellowship then that took a lot of beating. I even remember meeting Billy Walker, the British boxer as he was then working there as a porter while he was an amateur. I suspect in the days that I visited, not much had changed in centuries but the move to the new site I always thought would trigger it's demise.
Times change but I suspect that there will be many that will be sad that yet another traditional way of working will be disappearing.
Its sad news. I visited the market many times when working at Canary wharf in the early 2000s
I guess it was inevitable, with real estate values in London.
Most of the coastal fish markets disappeared about 15yrs ago, when fishing vessels’ catches were sold on the internet on the passage into port. Straight into reefer trucks and off to the buyers.
Fascinating. I went to a charity event at Old Billingsgate a couple of weeks ago and thought the building was absolutely wonderful. Amazing historyOriginally Posted by Artistmike
It's moving to Barking/Dagenham.
Really, I thought it was moving to the site next to the old Nine Elms market in Leyton, hmm, so plans have changed! Good for Dagenham though.
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From what I've read, going to the site of old Barking power station. New Spitalfields and Smithfield markets too.
Good idea, this gets them outside the solid traffic caused by the new Westfield at Stratford
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Nothing is safe in London. Customs House just up the road is being sold off next year and will be developed into bars, restaurants and living space above, which no one except the very rich will be able to buy.
We did a tour a few weeks ago as part of the Open House day, and after that walked down the Thames and past Billingsgate. I had no idea it was being moved. All in the name of progress …
Customs House has always been a white elephant.Nothing is safe in London. Customs House just up the road is being sold off next year and will be developed into bars, restaurants and living space above, which no one except the very rich will be able to buy.
We did a tour a few weeks ago as part of the Open House day, and after that walked down the Thames and past Billingsgate. I had no idea it was being moved. All in the name of progress …
Since closing down it’s been semi/derelict/restored & closed for decades.
The last thing I saw there was David Bailey’s exhibition on ageing dis/gracefully :-).
We lived in Beckton in the late 90’s, but wouldn’t now...
It's Custom House & it hasn't closed down. It doesn't close until next year.
Billingsgate has only been in Canary Wharf since 1982. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billingsgate_Fish_Market
I meant since it ceased being HMRC’s HQ in Docklands (60’s). It was ‘rescued’ and has been sitting , nicely restored in the 00’s but unused for years except as an exhibition space.
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Aha, I see. To me Custom House always means the main building on Lower Thames Street. It's still my office until next year.
That's a big office!
In some ways it's a real shame, but in others it does make sence and might provide a good opportunity to make improvements.
It's just a matter of time...
Maybe not, but it looks like 5hite inside. They're clearly not worrying about working conditions in the interim.
EDIT: Just read your next post. So there are two different buildings? The one we were in was definitely still occupied. Opposite HMS Belfast?
Last edited by Onelasttime; 13th October 2019 at 10:09.
You mean Billingsgate or Customs House? Either way, they'll both just be turned into prohibitively expensive flats, securing more money in the bank for property developers, with two entire workforces forced to relocate, so if that's an improvement, great!
As ever it's always nice to see investors with dodgy money shifting fund's around London to the benefit of nowhere else in the UK.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Yep, Custom House is on the north side of the river looking towards HMS Belfast. It's an HMRC building but now owned & maintained by Mapeley. It's Grade 1 listed inside & out, but that's not reflected in the care it gets.
Or the c one in R14, near City Airport?
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