September 5. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
447 
The Borough market was established by charter in the 
time of Edward VI., but at that time its contents could be 
packed in five carts. The market was first held in the 
High-street Southwark, but as the traffic of that great 
thoroughfare increased, and as the. market itself increased, it 
was found so inconvenient that in 1754 an act of Parliament 
was obtained for its removal to its present locality. Com¬ 
missioners were appointed to carry out the provisions of the 
act as regards the purchase of the ground and buildings, foi 
which they were authorized to borrow money (first £6000, 
and then £2000 additional) on the security of the tolls and 
rents. The property was not very valuable, as the names of 
the places purchased somewhat import—“ To wit, a piece ot 
ground in which is contained a spot called a triangle, 
abetting on a place called the Turnstile, on the backside of 
Three Crown • court, eastward; Fowle-lane buildings m 
Rochester-yard, and l)irty-lane, northward; and towaids > 
Dead-maus-place, eastward.” . [ 
The Borough mai'ket was enlarged by an Act passed in 
1829, and is about to be enlarged again. It now covers 3 
acres, or 180,080 square feet, and is the property of the 
parish of St. Saviour. It contains about 200 stands, rented 
at from .£1 to £30 per year. After the wholesale trade ot 
the market is completed, which is seldom later than ten 
o’clock, the stands are occupied by retail sellers, at the rate 
of from Od. to Is. per day, according to their size and 
situation. There are from 00 to 70 in the wholesale, and 
i about 100 in the retail business. The tolls are—on every 
j basket of fruit, jd. and ^d.; boxes ot fruit, id.; chests of 
I oranges and lemons, Id.; carts id., <kc. I he tolls and 
; regulations do not materially differ from those ot Covent- 
! garden. The occupiers of shops for general purposes pay 
14s. per week; the innkeepers TOO per year. There are 
; about nine shops and one inn on each side of the market, 
and over the market are about fifty lofts, used as warehouses, 
averaging Is. per week. The market daj’s are luesday, 
Thursday, and Saturday, but the market is open every day 
for retail sale. It is under the management of the church¬ 
wardens and overseers of St. Saviour’s, and of eleven 
inhabitants appointed by the vestry. Half-yearly reports are 
published. The one published on the 25th of March last 
shows these receipts :—Yearly rent of houses due at Michael¬ 
mas (less income-tax), £233 12s. 3d.; ditto due at Christmas, 
T204 9s. Id.; half-year’s tolls (leased to Mr. Robinson), 
T378; half-year’s rent of casual stands (leased to Mr. 
Palmer, jun.), .£95; twenty-six weeks’ rent of weekly 
standings (let to tradesmen and others), £418 8s. Od.; 
half-year’s dividends on .61,811 2s. 9d.; stock in bank, 
T28 11s. fid.; one year’s rent of cart stand, £2 2s. 
The sum of £1,157 8s., “Cash at banker’s, as per last 
report,” gives a total of £2,507 11s. 9d. By the 4th of 
George IV., it was enacted that, after providing lor the 
payment of debts,'&c., the rents and profits of the market 
“ should be applied in diminution of the parochial rates,” 
so that the chief disbursement was to the overseers, being 
£1,157 8s. Od. The other payments are for gas, assessed 
and land taxes, pavement, water, and sewer rates; Christmas 
gratuities, £3 3s.; the Bishop of Rochester, one year’s rent, 
£38 10s. 8d.; the same to the Bishop ot Winchester, 
£5 11s. 2d.; £27 10s. for tradesmen’s bills; the scavenger, 
two quarters cleansing, £40 ; beadle’s salary, and sundries, 
£37 10s.; clerks half-year’s salary, £30; collector’s half- 
year’s salary, £10. These payments, and a “ balance at 
banker’s’’ of £1,007 7s. 10d., balance the account. I here 
are in this market 8 ticket-porters, who act as night watch- 
The following returns show the business transacted in 
the course of the year at the Borough market. In all the 
returns “ cauliflowers" are included under the. head “ brocoli.” 
« Cabbages—8,000 loads, 200 dozen to a load, or 19,200,000 
Cftbb&SCS. 
“ Turnips— 2,000 loads of 200 dozen each, or 4,800,000 
U ™Brocoli—1,576 loads, of 200 dozen each, or 3,782,400 
heads of brocoli. 
“ Carrots—442 loads, 300 dozen each, or 1,571,200 carrots. 
“ Potatoes—36,000 tous. 
“ Peas—25,000 sacks. 
“ Beans—10,000 sacks. 
“ Currants—30,000 bushels. 
“ Cherries—45,000 bushels. 
“ Strawberries—10,000 bushels. 
“ Gooseberries—35,000 sieves. 
“ Apples—25,000 bushels. 
“ Pears—10,000 bushels." 
This supply is derived from Surrey, Essex, and Kent, and 
is sent by railway from the more distant, ahd by cart or 
waggon from the nearer places of growth. At early morning 
the crowd is very great, sometimes so great as to render 
locomotion nt^ct to impossible. On a wet morning it is 
peculiarly uncomfortable, from the jamming together of so 
many people soaked with the rain on their way to the 
market. 
Spitalfields, more than any other, is the market ot the 
poor. It is 327 feet on the north, 349 on the south, 380 on 
the. west, and 345 on the. east. This space is covered 
irregularly with buildings, some of them of wood, and very 
dingy. Where there are no buildings, the ground, which 
is not remarkable for cleanliness, is occupied with stands, 
or heaps of baskets which are piled on all sides. Up the 
centre of the market runs a covered avenue with shops on 
both sides, somewhat after the fashion of Covent garden, 
but very different in its character, as those shops which 
display good fruit are mixed with retail butchers, shoemakeis, 
milliners, tailors, Ac., such as supply small quantities, or low 
priced articles. Of these shops there are 27, letting at an 
average rent of 10s. weekly. The market is situated between 
Union-street and Lamb-street, on the north and south, and 
Crispin and Red-lion streets on the east and west. It is 
the property of Mr. Spurling, a private gentlemen. The 
market was established by charter in the reign ot Cbailes II. 
The tolls are £d. per bushel on fruit; and ^d. per sieve on 
potatoes, or Is. Od. a ton. A good portion of the supply to 
this market is grown on property appertaining to the Duchy 
of Lancaster, not many miles distant, and the consignors, it 
appears, claim and obtain one of the privileges of royalty, 
and will not pay toll. The wholesale market days are 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The market is under 
the superintendence of a clerk and the police, loiters 
(unticketed) are the only labourers, and they, in rotation, 
act as night watchers. 
One of the principal salesmen favoured me with the 
following communication :— 
“ In your letter on Spitalfields-market, you will perhaps 
notice that many, very many, of the things brought thereto 
are not subject to toll [my informant then states the privi¬ 
leges of the tenants of the Duchy of Lancaster]. In many 
of the yearly stands, only a nominal toll is taken. The classes 
of purchasers are—First, the shopkeepers, who come from 
Limeliouse, Bow, Bromley (in Middlesex), Stratford, Ilomei - 
ton, Clapton, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Islington, Kings- 
land, City, Ratcliff-Highway, Mile End, Whitechapel, East 
Smithfield, Wapping, and Blackwall. Those (and of course 
from places within these radii, and adjacent thereto) from 
the river-side purchase largely for the shipping. Many 
persons, however, connected with vessels, come here and 
supply themselves. The second class are the costermongers, 
who supply all parts of London and the adjacent districts ; 
indeed, it is only by their agency that many persons, five or six 
miles from London, directly adjoining to market-gardens, are 
supplied. At times, the Covent-garden, or ‘ Garden’ people 
as they are called, come here to buy—also the ‘ Boro.’ We of 
the ‘ fields ’ (our technical designation) occasionally return 
this compliment. The supply of our market is thus deiived. 
Many things come from Kent; our principal supply is horn 
Essex and Middlesex. Very large supplies of fruit come 
from Cambridgeshire, and, generally speaking, all the 
northern and eastern counties send us a good deal of their 
produce. The goods on commission are generally conveyed by 
the Eastern Counties Railway. Vast quantities of commission 
goods from Middlesex and from Essex, from places not at 
too great a distance, are also conveyed by waggon and cart, 
and are unloaded in the salesmen’s warehouse or on his 
stand. The goods sold by the growers themselves come by 
cart and waggon; these vehicles stand in the maiket-place, 
and the goods are sold therefrom. Two of our market sales^ 
men import largely—one of them imports vast quantities ot 
foreign fruits. Much of this they dispose of at the water¬ 
side, and some of it comes here. The « vast ’ importer will 
sometimes have 3,000 packages on the wharf at one time, 
