Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE MARKETS OF LONDON is hardly a city of marts in the same degree as Paris, for in the French capital the markets are largely used for retail purposes, and the number of both buyers and sellers who frequent them is no doubt considerably greater, relatively to the population, than in the case of London. None the less do the markets of our capital hold a place in its life of which no mere words can convey an adequate sense. The exact number of “ hands ” for whom they find employment is not ascertainable, for as a nation we have no passion for statistics. But cal- culating from the known to the unknown, there can be little doubt, I think, that in one capacity or another—as members of the administrative staffs, porters, carriers, salesmen, slaughtermen, drovers, and so forth—fully twenty thousand men earn their daily bread as market workers. THE METROPOLIS. Of all the markets of London, the most interesting is Billingsgate, in the shadow of London Bridge. True, the Billingsgate fish- fags who, to use Addison’s euphemism, were so prone to “ debates,” have disappeared, and the market is no longer the place it was when an auctioneer ran the risk of being knocked clown by a fair bidder unless he knocked down the fish to her. The porters, in their dirty white smocks, and with their well-lined hats, are not more pugnacious than their fellows in other markets, nor is their vernacular in higher repute for raciness and vigour. Still, in its busiest hours, from five o’clock to nine, the market offers a scene which for animation and character can hardly be matched else- where in London. How it is that, with everyone getting in everyone else’s way, and acting on the assumption that the market was made primarily for himself, the AT BILLINGSGATE MARKET.