Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE MARKETS OF THE METROPOLIS. 251 fish ever finds its way into the market and finds its way out again, is one of the puzzles of our social organisation. The confusion, however, is a good deal less chaotic than the unsophisticatéd observer supposes. Else would it be impossible for 470 tons of fish to change hands here every day. Ten years ago 144,000 tons of general market, and that for the last two centuries it has been used entirely for the sale of fish. The present market buildings, the work of the late Sir Horace Jones, were reared about a quarter of a century ago, when they superseded a much smaller structure. To the same architect London owes the fish passed through the market in twelve months; at the present time the quantity verges upon 150,000 tons. Of this, about one-third is brought from the fishing-fleets o o most commodious group of market buildings in this country. I speak, of course, of the Central Markets at Smithfield, which, with the additions that have been made in the North Sea by the long, swift steamers that steal up the Thames during to them for the sale of fish, vegetables, the night; the other two-thirds are railway borne, and are brought here from the termini in the vans that throng the sur- rounding streets. Nor have the journeyings of the produce of the nets it reaches the market. Much more of it finds its way to Billingsgate than the needs of London demand, and by mid-day the surplus is being whirled along by swift trains into the provinces to figure as the second course in E ' H the evening dinner in remote country Ma ) I places. Tw'** The burly por- ters, who are HflHM licensed ceased when ? S i 3*’ for a nominal fee by EARLY MORNING AT BILLINGSGATE MARKET. Photo: Casse. I & Co., 'Ltd. the City Corpora- tion, number close upon 900, and altogether some 1,200 persons find employment at Billingsgate. The porters are paid by the piece, and a steady, industrious man often makes as much as £3 a week. Their work, though hard, is not unhealthy, though it has a tendency to produce affections of the heart from the strain of the heavy loads which the men have to handle. Many of them, too, go bald at an early age as the result of carrying their burdens on their heads. From which it would appear that “ head work ” is no more good for the hair than is brain work ! Of the history of Billingsgate I may not speak. Suffice it to say that at least as far back as the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was a and other commodities, stretch right down to Faningdon Street. The market is, how- ever, mainly for the sale of meat. A decade ago the meat, etc., sold here was about 300,000 tons in weight ; now it is considerably over 400,000 tons. Perhaps a better idea of the volume of trade may be gathered from the fact that including the market-staff, about a hundred strong, between six and seven thousand men are employed here, of whom about a thousand are licensed porters and meat-carriers. At Smithfield business begins even earlier than at Billingsgate. The market gates are opened about the time when the votaries of fashion begin to think of going to bed. At four o’clock business has begun, and as