656 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER UF ¥i6iL AN1> FISHERIES. [14] 



clauses imported iuto the bill by the Lords' comiuittee, and thanks also 

 to the energetic speech of Lord Shaftesbury, these clauses were with- 

 drawn, and there is at length a fair chance that London will shortly 

 have a riverside fish market worthy of the largest and hungriest city 

 in the world." 



It remains for us to inquire what are the attributes and properties 

 that a metropolitan fish emporium should possess, and to see how far they 

 are supplied by the site at Shadwell, where it is understood that the 

 new market authorized by the two Houses of Parliament is about to 

 be established. What these essentials are was clearly laid down by the 

 fish committee of the common council when they arrived at the follow- 

 ing conclusions : 



1. That one wholesale market is calculated to meet the requirements 

 of the trade and the interests of the public. 



2. That sucb a market should be at the water-side. 



3. That there should be ample and sufQcient approaches from all parts 

 of the metropolis to the site of any wholesale fish market 



To these three very obvious conclusions a fourth might have been 

 added to the effect that the market should be established at a point where 

 the river is sufQciently wide for the sailing vessels and steamers moored 

 at the market quay to be out of the way of the stream of floating traffic 

 which passes ceaselessly to and fro along that crowded highway of na- 

 tions. 



That the site at Shadwell conforms to these conditions is evident from 

 the following arguments which were deemed irrefutable by the special 

 committees* of the Lords and Commons when brought before them last 

 session. 



1. The London riverside fish-market bill authorizes its promoters to 

 take about eight acres of land in the parish of St. Paul, Shadwell, four 

 acres of which they bind themselves to appropriate for the new fish 

 market and its a^iproaches. 



2. The site, like that of Billingsgate, is on the north side of the river, 

 to which it has a frontage of 600 as against that possessed by the Bil- 

 lingsgate of 200 feet. It lies nearly two miles below London Bridge, at 

 a point where the Thames is 1,100 feet wide, and being situated on the 

 edge of a bay, out of the influence of the tide, and 500 feet clear of the 

 ordinary trafiic of the stream, it enables vessels approaching it to avoid 

 the difficult and dangerous navigation of the Upper Pool, which is no 

 ordinary advantage when we remember that the fish craft for the most 

 part arrive in the dark. 



3. The shore can be leveled so as to admit vessels of thirteen feet 

 draught alongside the wharf at half tide. Vessels will lie next the whaif,^ 

 and unload direct iuto the market, thus avoiding the expense, delay, 

 and danger of the present system of discharging. There is a boat fen y 

 at either end of the site, and a steam ferry is about to be reopened at a 

 short distance to the west. This steam ferrv can make from seven to- 



