[3] THE FISH SUPPLY OF LONDON 645 



purchasing at one form interfere with those who would fain approach 

 its neighbor. The price charged for the forms is excessively high, being 

 at the rate of 9d. a square foot per week for each. Billingsgate is situated 

 above that portion of the river call the Upper Pool, which carries 

 more floating traffic than any other reach of water approaching it in 

 size upon fhe face of the globe, so that the dangers of navigation to 

 which cutters and steamers approaching the market by night are ex- 

 posed exceed description. The width of the portion of the river oppo- 

 site to Billingsgate left open for navigation does not exceed 200 feet. 

 In front of the market, on the water side, there is a large floating pon- 

 toon, but the steamers are not allowed to come alongside it in order to 

 unload, being compelled to lie off at a distance of nearly 100 feet from 

 the market quay, and to land their fish along i)lanks thrown out from the 

 steamer to a barge, and from this barge to the floating pontoon. Every 

 pound of fish brought by steamer and landed from the river at Billings- 

 gate is carried along these planks upon men's heads. Only two roads, 

 one from and one to the steamers, are permitted to exist, and as the men 

 have no choice but to follow each other it is evidentl^'^ impossible to land 

 a large quantity offish before the market closes at nine in the morning. 

 The result is that fresh fish is often thrown away, because it will not 

 keep until 5 o'clock upon the following morning. This being the plight 

 to which fish-carrying steamers are reduced, the trials and difficulties 

 awaiting sailing cutters entitle them to still greater commiseration. 

 Being sharp-bottomed vessels they have to lie out in the stream, and to 

 land their fish, at considerable expense, in barges. There were once some 

 piles in the river to which the cutters could make fast, but the market 

 authorities drew them. It ought, in addition, to be mentioned that the 

 work of landing fish along the planks which we have just described is 

 dangerous to the men engaged in it, and all the more so because during 

 half the year it is done in the dark. Accidents happen frequently, and 

 occasionally there is a loss of life. The unnecessary expense entailed 

 in this manner upon those who consign fish to Billingsgate may be in- 

 ferred from the fact which came out in evidence that the largest firm 

 in the trade had in 1880 to pay £4,331 9s. M, and in 1881, £4,854, 8s. 

 Id. for landing their cargoes, an outlay which, had it been possible for 

 their steamers to moor at the market quay, would have been entirely 

 avoided, and which, of course, came ultimately out of the pockets of the 

 consumers. 



The approach to Billingsgate market from the land side is along Low- 

 er Thames street, a thoroughfare which is from twenty-eight to thirty 

 feet wide, and along which not more than two vans can pass abreast. 

 It follows, therefore, that only two streams of traffic can flow along it 

 at the same time, and thus, if a van is being unpacked at the market, 

 one of the two streams is temporarily blocked. If an accident of the 

 most trivial kind should occur the whole of the traffic is brought to a 

 stand still. Six vans, and no more than six, can unload side by side at 



