If you stand on the banks of the Thames today, near the shadow of the Shard, you’ll see a massive brick building with golden fish weather vanes spinning in the wind. That’s Old Billingsgate Market. For a long time, this was the loudest, smelliest, and most chaotic spot in the entire City of London. People don't realize just how intense it was. We’re talking about 120,000 tons of fish moving through those doors every year. It wasn't just a market; it was a sensory assault.
Nowadays? It’s a posh event space. You’ll find tech conferences, art fairs, and massive booze-filled corporate awards ceremonies where the fish stalls used to be. But the history of Old Billingsgate Market London is way weirder than just "it used to sell cod." It involves 1,000-year-old laws, Dutch eel merchants, and a very specific type of swearing that actually made it into the dictionary.
The King, the Ice, and the Eels
History here doesn't start with the Victorian building you see now. It goes back way further. We're talking 9th-century informal trading. By 1400, King Henry IV gave it a royal charter. Back then, they sold everything: corn, salt, wine, even iron. But fish eventually won the war for the floor space.
By 1699, Parliament basically made it "The Fish Place." There was one weird exception, though. Dutch fishermen were the only ones allowed to sell eels there. Why? Because they helped feed starving Londoners during the Great Fire of 1666. That rule stayed on the books for centuries. It's that kind of hyper-specific London lore that makes the place feel alive even now.
The building we see today was the work of Sir Horace Jones. If that name sounds familiar, it should. He’s the guy who designed Tower Bridge and Smithfield Market. He finished this masterpiece in 1877. He used a lot of Portland stone and yellow London stock brick. Honestly, it looks more like a French palace than a place to gut a salmon. Jones was obsessed with using iron to create massive open spaces. He wanted traders to move fast. Inside, you had these giant cast-iron Doric columns holding up a glass roof. It was high-tech for the 1870s.
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Below the main floor was The Vault. It's a dark, brick-lined basement that was kept freezing cold. For fifty years, it was packed with layers of ice to keep the catch from rotting. If you go down there now for a party, you’re literally standing where millions of pounds of shellfish once sat in the dark.
The "Billingsgate" Language
You might have heard the term "billingsgate" used to describe foul language. That’s not a coincidence. The market porters and fishwives were legendary for their creative insults. It was a rough, fast-paced environment. If you got in someone’s way, you didn't get a "pardon me." You got a verbal lashing that would make a sailor blush. It became so famous that "billingsgate" officially became a word for coarse, vituperative speech.
George Orwell even worked there briefly in the 1930s. He wrote about the grueling conditions and the sheer physical toll of moving heavy crates at 4:00 AM. The porters were the kings of the floor. They wore "bobbin hats"—hard, flat-topped leather hats—which allowed them to balance immense crates of fish directly on their heads.
Why did the fish leave?
By the late 1970s, the City of London was changing. The Square Mile was becoming a global financial hub. Having thousands of tons of fish arriving by truck and boat in the middle of a banking district was a logistical nightmare. The smell alone was... well, it was a lot.
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In 1982, the market finally packed up. It moved east to the Isle of Dogs. Interestingly, the City of London Corporation still runs it today, but even that site is on the move again. They’re planning to consolidate everything at a new mega-site in the future. But when the fish left the original Old Billingsgate Market London building, it left behind a massive, empty, Grade II listed shell.
From Fish Guts to Fashion Shows
After the traders left, the building almost became an office for Citibank. There’s a persistent urban legend that the bank backed out because they couldn't get the smell of fish out of the foundations. Some say it was actually because the basement flooded once the decades-old ice finally melted. Either way, the bank moved on, and the legendary architect Richard Rogers (the guy behind the Pompidou Centre and the Lloyd's building) stepped in to renovate it.
He kept the character. He didn't strip it. Today, the venue is split into three main areas:
- The Grand Hall: This is the big one. Triple-height ceilings, 40,000 square feet, and room for 2,500 people. It’s where the main market floor was.
- The Vault: The old cold storage. It’s all exposed brick and low arches. Very atmospheric for underground parties or "secret" launches.
- The Gallery: A more modern-feeling space on the top floor with great views of the Thames.
If you’re visiting London in 2026, you can’t just walk in and buy a ticket like a museum. It’s a private hire venue. However, it hosts huge public events. For example, in April 2026, the Art Space London exhibition is taking over the hall. In March 2026, there’s even a massive property investment show.
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How to actually see it
Most people just walk past it on their way to the Tower of London. Don't do that. Stop and look at the details. Look at the keystones on the arches; they have intricate carvings of dolphins and sea creatures. The riverfront terrace is one of the best viewpoints in the city. You get a perfect, unobstructed view of HMS Belfast and the Shard across the water.
Old Billingsgate Market London represents a version of the city that's almost gone—the working-class, grit-and-grime London that eventually got polished into a global financial center.
Actionable Advice for Visitors:
- Check the Schedule: Since it’s not a museum, check the official Old Billingsgate website for public events like "Wine Weekend" or art fairs before you go. That’s your only way inside.
- The Best View: Walk across London Bridge to the south side. Look back. The symmetry of Horace Jones’s design is much clearer from a distance.
- The Nearby "Secret": Right next door is the Church of St Magnus-the-Martyr. It used to be the entrance to the old London Bridge. It’s a quiet, beautiful contrast to the massive market building.
- Photography Tip: Go at sunset. The Portland stone on the facade glows gold, and the fish weather vanes look incredible against a darkening sky.
The market may be gone, but the building remains a massive, brick-and-iron monument to a time when London lived and breathed by the tide of the Thames. It's a reminder that even the most functional, "smelly" parts of a city can eventually become its most beautiful landmarks.
To see the building in its best light, start your walk at Monument station, head down towards the river, and loop around the Thames Path toward the Tower. You'll pass right by the terrace where centuries of fishermen once landed their catch before the sun even came up.