Billingsgate Cartographer; Blome, RichardSurveyor; Stow, John 1720

Billingsgate is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London. This small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the River Thames between

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

and

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule and Suspended-deck suspension bridge, suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones (architect), Horace Jones and e ...

in the south-east of the Square Mile. The modern Ward extends south to the Thames, west to Lovat Lane and Rood Lane, north to Fenchurch Street and Dunster Court, and east to Mark Lane and St Dunstan's Hill.

History

Legendary origin

Billingsgate's most ancient historical reference is as a

water gate A watergate (or water gate) is a fortified gate, leading directly from a castle or town wall directly on to a quay, river side or harbour. In medieval times it enabled people and supplies to reach the castle or fortification directly from the ...

to the city of Trinovantum (the name given to London in medieval British legend), as mentioned in the '' Historia Regum Britanniae'' (Eng: ''History of the Kings of Britain'') written 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. This work describes how Belinus, a legendary king of Britain said to have held the throne from about 390 BC, erected London's first

fortified A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

Historical origin

Originally known as ''Blynesgate'' and ''Byllynsgate'', its name apparently derives from its origins as a water gate on the Thames, where goods were landed, becoming Billingsgate Wharf, part of London's docks close to

Lower Thames Street Thames Street, divided into Lower and Upper Thames Street, is a road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It forms part of the busy A3211 route (prior to being rebuilt as a major thoroughfare in the late 1960s, it ...

. Historian

John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The C ...

records that Billingsgate Market was a general market for corn, coal, iron, wine, salt, pottery, fish and miscellaneous goods until the 16th century, when neighbouring streets became a specialist fish market. By the late 16th century, most

merchant vessel A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are us ...

s had become too large to pass under London Bridge, and so Billingsgate, with its deeply recessed

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

, replaced Queenhithe as the most important landing place in the city.

Great Fire of London

Until boundary changes in 2003, the Ward included Pudding Lane, where in 1666 the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

started.Book 2, Ch. 7: "Billingsgate Ward", ''A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark'' (1773), pp. 551-53
accessed: 21 May 2007 A sign was erected over the property where the Great Fire began:

After the Great Fire

After the Great Fire of London, shops and stalls set up trade forming arcades on the harbour's west side, whilst on the main quay, an open market soon developed, called "''Roomland''".

Fish market

Billingsgate Fish Market was formally established by an Act of Parliament in 1699 to be "a free and open market for all sorts of fish whatsoever". Oranges, lemons, and

Spanish onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

s were also landed there, alongside the other main commodities, coal and salt. In 1849, the fish market was moved off the streets into its own riverside building, which was subsequently demolished (c. 1873) and replaced by an arcaded-market hall (designed by City architect Horace Jones, built by John Mowlem) in 1875. In 1982, Billingsgate Fish Market was relocated to its present location close to Canary Wharf in east London. The original riverside market building was then refurbished by the architect

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...

to provide office accommodation and an entertainment venue. The raucous cries of the fish vendors gave rise to the word ''Billingsgate'' as a synonym for profanity or offensive language. Within the Ward are the Customs House and the Watermen's Hall, built in 1780 and the city's only surviving

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Livery company

hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

. Centennium House in Lower Thames Street has

Roman baths In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

within its basement foundations. Legal Quays 1746

Churches

Within the Ward remain two churches: St Mary-at-Hill and St Margaret Pattens, after the demolition of

St George Botolph Lane St George Botolph Lane was a church off Eastcheap, in the ward of Billingsgate in the City of London. The rear of the church overlooked Pudding Lane, where the fire of London started. It was first recorded in the twelfth century, and destroyed in ...

in 1904.As the resident population of the area declined (''Huelin'').

Politics

Billingsgate is one of the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

's 25 Wards returning an Alderman and two Common Councilmen (the City equivalent of a Councillor) to the City of London Corporation, the elected in March 2022 were Luis Felipe Tilleria and Nighat Qureishi.

In popular culture

Lord Blackadder Edmund Blackadder is the single name given to a collection of fictional characters who appear in the BBC mock-historical comedy series ''Blackadder'', each played by Rowan Atkinson. Although each series is set within a different period of Britis ...

, the titular hero of '' Blackadder II'', is said to have resided at Billingsgate, and in Thackeray's '' Vanity Fair (Ch. 3)'', Mr. Sedley has "brought home the best turbot in Billingsgate". Billingsgate is also referred to in the song "

Sister Suffragette "Sister Suffragette" is a pro-suffrage protest song pastiche sung by actress Glynis Johns while playing Mrs. Winifred Banks in the 1964 Disney film ''Mary Poppins''. The song's melody was originally from a scrapped piece called "Practically Perfe ...

" in the 1964 version of ''

Mary Poppins It may refer to: * ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character. * Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers. * ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...

''.

Due to the real and perceived vulgar language used by the

fishmongers A fishmonger (historically fishwife for female practitioners) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, fillet (cut), filleting, d ...

, which Francis Grose referred to in his ''

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue A slang dictionary is a reference book containing an alphabetical list of slang, which is vernacular vocabulary not generally acceptable in formal usage, usually including information given for each word, including meaning, pronunciation, and etym ...

'', Billingsgate came to be used as a noun— billingsgate—referring to coarse or foul language.

References

External links

Ward Constable profileWard mapWard Club

Map of Early Modern London: Billingsgate Ward
- Historical Map and Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's London (Scholarly)

Bibliography

*''The City of London: A History'' Borer M I C, New York, D.McKay Co, 1978 *''Vanished churches of the City of London'' Huelin G, London, Guildhall Library Publishing 1996 *''The Churches of the City of London'' Reynolds H London, Bodley Head, 1922 *''A Survey of London, Vol I'' Stow J p. 427 Originally, 1598: this edn-London, A.Fullarton & Co, 1890 *''Wren'', Whinney M, London, Thames & Hudson, 1971 {{City of London gates Wards of the City of London