[11] THE FISH SUPPLY OF LONDON. 653 



former colleague, Mr. Spencer Walpole, whose views we shall presently 

 have occasion to quote. Before doing so, however, we invite our read- 

 ers to observe that the recommendations of the corporation's committee 

 require Billingsgate, as the sole fish market of the metro[)olis, to i)os- 

 sess properties which are absolutely impossible and unattaiuable under 

 the circumstances. In the first i>lace, its land approaches could never 

 be made sufficient without spending a sum of money which would 

 stagger even the city fathers, and throw their yearly budget into iuex- 

 tricable confusion. Secondly, the approach by river through the Upper 

 Pool will always present insurmountable difficulties. Thirdly, the 

 area of the market is far too small, and cannot be increased uidess the 

 custom-house be given up to the city, which the Government has no 

 thought of doing. So hopeless, indeed, did the retention of Billings- 

 gate as the sole metropolitan fish market appear to be in the eyes of the 

 civic committee that they were induced to turn their attention to other 

 river-side sites, and specially to one near Blackfriars Bridge, the esti- 

 mated outlay upon which would have entailed an expenditure of from 

 £900,000 to £1,200,000, not to mention that the conservators of the river 

 would be certain to forbid its selection, on the ground of the encroach- 

 ment it would make on the water-way. Lastly, the committee avow 

 their opinion that neither the enlargement of the area of Billingsgate 

 nor the establishment of additional markets atFarringdon road or else- 

 where "would supersede the necessity for providing betfer approaches 

 for facilitating the traffic in that locality." A more damaging denuncia- 

 tion of Billingsgate than is supplied by the report of the corporation's 

 own committee it would indeed be utterly impossible to conceive. 

 Mr. Walpole is equally explicit to the same effect. His report says : 

 "Fishing in the North Sea, the greats^ource of the London fish sup- 

 ply, is carried on in two ways : (1.) By boats working in fleets on the 

 Dogger Bank, on the Silver Pits, on the German coast, and on other 

 favorable fishing grounds ', and (2), by boats working grounds usually 

 nearer home, either singly or with only one or two comi)anions. When 

 the boats work singly and near home they are rarely away for more than 

 twenty-four or forty-eight hours ; when they work in fleets they are away 

 for weeks and even months at a time. In the former case the boats re- 

 turning to port to unload the fish sell them on the fish quay; the fish are 

 then packed by the buyers and sent to London by train. They are more 

 or less exposed to the sun on the boat, and they are exposed on the fish 

 quay; they are then packed, in ice it is true, in a truck which has per- 

 haps been standing in the sun for some hours ; they are brought up in 

 a railway van to town and then carried in a van through the streets of 

 London. But when the fish are caught by boats working in fleets fast 

 steamers attend the fleet to carry the fish back to London. They are 

 removed almost as soon as they are caught to the hold of the steamer, 

 covered with ice, and never unpacked till the steamer reaches Billings- 

 gate. 



