Billingsgate - early morning

An illustration of Billingsgate market in the early morning, from 'London: a Pilgrimage' by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, 1872. For centuries fishing boats were unloaded at wharfs at both Billingsgate and Queenhithe. However Queenhithe was obstructed by London Bridge so Billingsgate, along Thames Street, became the major fish market in nineteenth-century London. The first purpose-built market was constructed on Lower Thames Street in 1850. It was demolished a year after 'London: a Pilgrimage' was published and a new market, designed by Sir Horace Jones, was opened in 1876.