MORNING IN BILLINGSGATE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3012, 19 February 1881, Page 4

MORNING IN BILLINGSGATE.

Who would see Billingsgate at its busiest must be there by 5 o'clock in the morning, format 5 o'clock, all the year round, the policeman, permanently appointed to this post, rings the great bell, and at the first tone of its iron tongue the iron gates, river Bide and city side, are unbarred, and swinging wide open, admit such a concourse as is not seen in any other city under the sun. Men in so-called white smocks with head-dresses partly felt, partly leathersome with leaves of leather hanging half way down their back, made furious rushes from Lower Thames street to the river side, where they are met by fellow-labourers, who have reached there by some mysterious means there already, and who search about eagerly for work to do. The steamers which have been out for days in search of the fleet of fishing-boats from the North sea, and which may have overhauled them close to Heligoland, or nearer to or farther from our shores are moored alongside the dummies by the landings, and into each of these are lowered two timber gangways, up one of which climb the porters with, trunks of fish upon their heads, whilst down the other trip other porters with their empty boxes or trunks, as they are indifferently called, rpncly for a fresh load. These ste»*T«:rc xnay have arrived in tho river during the early morning, or they may have ccme late the previous afternoon ; or should your visit be fixed for Monday, they may have been there from Saturday afternoon, lying lazily in the suffocating weather, which is not calculated to improve the flavor of the cargo- But there are also ice-ships afloat, and the knowledge of their presence lends a sentimental coolness to the atmosphere.

Now the streets become noisy with the arrival of carriers' carts from the railways, whose systems touch the sea, or carry river fish from Scotland or from Ireland. Of course the Irish and Scotch salmon are the most highly prized, fox* those of the English rivers are not rated so highly, and the produce of the Norway rivers stands at the lowest figure in the market. But for this class of fish the season is nearly, if not completely at an end, for the speckled trout goes out of fashion at the close of the Parka-

tnentary session, with its lordly relative, the ' ilm •> Cod aad skate, •which 1 iust coming 1 ■ plaice seem ,nM . > i) i . i oysters are rather shy of putting in a plentiful appearance. Norway lobsters are not jnstnow in season, so that one visiting the market at present loses the sight of their sorting in the " haclcloclc-roora," over the ground floor market, a sight well worthy of beholding. At 6 and 7 o'clock approach, the business becomes fast and furious. The fish arriving by boat and by rail are being rapidly sold off, for the most part by auction. There is but little time to haggle about prices ; the market figures are tolerably well established almost from the moment the gates are unbarred, and customers are too anxious to obtain their required supply, and to carry it off to distant parts of the metropolis, to waste time in beating down for pence, for shillings, or even for pounds sterling. From the steamers and the Dutch eel boats, hung with cages round the sides, and fitted with wells inside to keep the fish alive ; from the heavy barges laden with shrimps, which are shovelled like giv.iu into baskets, or with mud-coloured flounders caught by and beyond Blackfriars Bridge ; from the railway vans in the narrow roadways, crowded with flat fish and fresh-water fish, or with huge baskets running over with slimy eels, the porters make their way in and out of the market. The numerous narrow by-ways that radiate from the base of the "tall bully that lifts the head and lies"—in Latin —are thronged with costermongers' carts and barrels, so that for the general public these so-called thoroughfares are positively impassable up to 9 or 10 o'clock. As the market exists, its business is carried on with all possible propriety; and taking into consideration that its lowest chamber, which, by the way, is scarcely ever used, is 10ft. below the level of the river, it is kept remarkably dry. This has to be effected, however, by means of steam power, which keeps continually pumping the water out from under the flooring, and which would, if allowed to rise, flood the building in thirtysix hours. Strange to say, too, this drainage is not water from the river, for it is perfectly pure and tasteless, but is supposed to percolate through the earth from the Coal Exchange, opposite where it is said the Romans of old had established spring-baths. —London Standard.