Billingsgate Fish Market

At the entrance of the London fish market

This is an entry about the famous Billingsgate Market in London. It is the oldest indoor fish market in UK and was established by an Act of Parliament in 1698. WAY before I was born. According to their website, "the annual turnover of the Market is estimated to be in the region of £200m."

For those who have been to the Sydney Fish Market, please don't set your expectation too high.

Billingsgate Market mainly deals with wholesale trading, so its trading hours are not exactly consumer-friendly. As you can tell from the photo, the sky was pretty dark when I went. It's not because of bad weather, but it was 5:30am in the morning.

For your information, the opening hours of the fish market are:

Tuesday to Saturday 5.00am - 8.30am
Sunday 6.00am - 8.00am (Shellfish market only)
Closed Monday and it's closed on the Tuesday following a long weekend.

We would love to show you what it's like inside the building. Unfortunately, it is not exactly a tourist-friendly spot and photography is prohibited inside the building.

Here are some photos from the official website:

Inside the building, there are about 40 merchants trading in their allocated stands. Most fish and shellfish are sold by the (form) box or in bulk, e.g. 2kg of prawns costs around £12. You can't get 1kg of prawns. It's whatever on display. The stock of fish is rather limited (by Sydney standard). The selection contains mainly trout, salmon and sole fish.

There was one particular stall that stands out. An Asian family was buying a number of crab from this shop. Our instinct tells that it must be of good value. We were standing in front of the store, evaluating what's on offer. This storeowner come around and ask us whatever we speak Japanese or Korean. We then told him that we speak Cantonese. Then all in a sudden, he starts showcasing all his stock in Cantonese and recommend the fresh stock to us. We thought that was quite impressive. We were even more surprised when he told us the crabs that the Asian family bought were not in good health (not lively).

There are no outlets for beverages and cooked seafood. There is a small old-fashioned cafe that all the fishmongers hang out for morning tea. Sadly, my favourite fishmarket item - sashimi - is completely missing from the scene! SP and I were a little disappointed and we left the market empty-handed in the end :(

For more information:
Website of Billingsgate Market
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/our_services/markets/billingsgate/