Vintage Photos of the Old Billingsgate Fish Market in the City of London

Old Billingsgate Market is the name given to what is now a hospitality and events venue in the City of London, based in the Victorian building that was originally Billingsgate Fish Market, the world's largest fish market.

The first Billingsgate Market building was constructed on Lower Thames Street in 1850 by the builder John Jay, and the fish market was moved off the streets into its new riverside building. This was demolished in around 1873 and replaced by an arcaded market hall designed by City architect Horace Jones and built by John Mowlem & Co. in 1875, the building that still stands on the site today.
In 1982, the fish market itself was relocated to a new site on the Isle of Dogs in east London. The 1875 building was then refurbished by architect Richard Rogers, originally to provide office accommodation.

The last-minute rush to supply the London area with its fish for Good Friday caused this busy scene in Billingsgate, London on March 25, 1937. (AP Photo)

Billingsgate, oddly quiet lately, was its cheerful and noisy self. The market re-opened at 7-30 till 12 noon, until further notice. A general view of scene in Billingsgate Market Sept. 25, 1939. (AP Photo)

A scene at Billingsgate fish market in London on Oct. 11, 1945, showing the boxes of fish being loaded onto the waiting house-drawn carts to be distributed to the various London shops. (AP Photo)

Billingsgate Market, 1947.

Two fish porters, October 1945.

Actor Michael Bentine and actress Diana Dors making the film The Sandwich Man in Billingsgate Fish Market in 1965.

Inside Billingsgate in 1969.

The end of the day at Billingsgate. December 1969.

A Billingsgate porter in 1974.

The basement of the Billingsgate Market specialised in shellfish. From 1977.

The old Billingsgate market was noticeably anachronistic as the City of London changed around it, August 1979. (AP Photo/Lawrence Harris)

Telephone lines dangle off the hook in the deserted old Billingsgate Fish Market. Trading at the new market in West India Dock began today. The new market, which keeps the traditional name, moved there from the old site by London Bridge, which it has occupied for 1100 years. 1982.