[13] THE FISH SUPPLY OF LONDON. 655 



still more hopeless to ask local authorities to incur expense for a pur- 

 pose diametrically opposed to the trade of their neighborhood. The only 

 possible course seems to be to condemn in London the fish which are 

 bad when they reach Billingsgate, and to trust to the effects of this con- 

 demnation to prevent salesmen from wasting money by sending other 

 bad fish to London. 



'' If this conclusion be correct," adds Mr. Walpole, " then the state, 

 not of Billingsgate, but of the approaches to Billingsgate, must, in my 

 judgment, be held responsible for some portion of the loss which arises 

 from the necessary destruction of condensed fish. I have already en- 

 deavored to describe what those approaches are. The vans arriving 

 from the railway station, the carts of the retail dealers arriving to buy, 

 make them almost impassable, and the system on which the trafiic is, 

 perhaps unavoidably, conducted, makes confusion almost hopeless. On 

 general grounds it would apparently be desirable that the vans which 

 reach the market first should be unpacked first, and sho uld then pro- 

 ceed as empties to their destination. But in practice this is never uni- 

 formly done. The vans which arrive first may contain fish for which 

 there is no particular demand, while the vans which are x^erhaps in the 

 rear of the line may contain other fish for which there is a great de- 

 mand. The vans, therefore, instead of being unpacked, are forced to 

 move on, and thread their way through the crowded thoroughfares of 

 London till they are able to obtain a fresh place in the line. One van, 

 whose case was exceptionally unfortunate, returned in this way, not 

 merely time after time, but day after day, and for eleven days. The 

 fish which it contained were of course ultimately condemned. 



" How, then, is the difficulty to be obviated which at j)resent exists? 

 I believe it to be imi)08Sible to obviate it till the approaches to Billings- 

 gate are reconstructed, or the market is itself removed. A market 

 does not deserve the name which does not afford (1) accommodation for 

 buyers and sellers ; (2) standing room, and, where perishable articles 

 are concerned, standing room under covered ways, for the vans which 

 are being unpacked ; and (3) easy access. Billingsgate fulfills the first 

 of these conditions. It wholly fails to fulfill the second and third of 

 them. A market without approaches is, in fact, as inconvenient as a 

 house of many stories without a staircase. It is said that the amateur 

 architect is apt to forget the staircase when he builds the house. I 

 should very much regret to call the corporation of Loudon an amateur 

 architect, but it has undoubtedly committed the mistake of reconstruct, 

 ing the market and of forgetting the approaches." 



We have said enough to show that Billingsgate is past praying for; 

 nor can much sympathy be expected from the public with the efforts 

 made last session by a portion of the common council to save its life by 

 defeating the London riverside fishmarket bill before the special 

 committee of the House of Lords. Thanks to the refusal of Lord Sal- 

 isbury and of the Duke of Richmond to sustain the two mischievous 



