Billingsgate Cartographer; Blome, RichardSurveyor; Stow, John 1720

Billingsgate is one of the 25

Wards of the City of London The City of London (also known simply as "the City") is divided into 25 wards. The city is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London, with an ancient and ''sui generis'' form of local government, which avoided the many l ...

. This small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

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 Fenchurch Street is a street in London linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many corporate office ...

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Billingsgate's most ancient historical reference is as a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 Trinovantum is the name in medieval British legend that was given to London, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', when it was founded by the exiled Trojan Brutus, who called it ''Troia Nova'' ("New Troy"), which was gr ...

(the name given to London in medieval British legend), as mentioned in the ''

Historia Regum Britanniae ''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...

'' (Eng: ''History of the Kings of Britain'') written 1136 by

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiograph ...

. This work describes how

Belinus Belinus the Great was a legendary king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the son of Dunvallo Molmutius and brother of Brennius. He was probably named after the ancient god Belenus. Earning the crown In an effort to ...

, 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 Queenhithe is a small and ancient ward of the City of London, situated by the River Thames and to the south of St. Paul's Cathedral. The Millennium Bridge crosses into the City at Queenhithe. Queenhithe is also the name of the ancient, but now ...

as the most important landing place in the city.

Great Fire of London

Until boundary changes in 2003, the Ward included

Pudding Lane Pudding Lane is a small street in London, widely known as the location of Thomas Farriner's bakery, where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. It runs between Eastcheap and Thames Street in the historic City of London, and intersects Monum ...

, 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 A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...

, an open market soon developed, called "''Roomland''".

Fish market

Billingsgate Fish Market Billingsgate Fish Market is located in Canary Wharf in London. It is the United Kingdom's largest inland fish market. It takes its name from Billingsgate, a ward in the south-east corner of the City of London, where the riverside market was origi ...

was formally established by an Act of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in 1699 to be "a free and open market for all sorts of fish whatsoever".

Oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

s, 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 Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

. 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 John Mowlem (12 October 1788 – 8 March 1868) was an England, English stonemason, builder and founder of the quarrying and construction company "Mowlem, Burt and Freeman". Career Mowlem was born in Swanage, Dorset, the son of a quarryman. As a ...

) in 1875. In 1982, Billingsgate Fish Market was relocated to its present location close to

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...

in east London. The original riverside market building was then refurbished by the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

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 A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

and the

Watermen's Hall The Company of Watermen and Lightermen (CWL) is a historic livery company, City guild in the City of London. However, unlike the city's other 109 livery company, livery companies, CWL does not have a grant of livery. Its meeting rooms are at Wat ...

, 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

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

es:

St Mary-at-Hill St Mary-at-Hill is an Anglican parish church in the Ward of Billingsgate, City of London. It is situated on Lovat Lane, a cobbled street off Eastcheap. It was founded in the 12th century as "St. Mary de Hull" or "St. Mary de la Hulle". It was se ...

and

St Margaret Pattens St Margaret Pattens is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on Eastcheap near the Monument to the Great Fire of London, Monument. The dedication is to St. Margaret of Antioch. History The church was first recorded in 1067, a ...

, after the demolition of St George Botolph Lane 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 An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

and two Common Councilmen (the City equivalent of a

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

) to the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

, the elected in March 2022 were Luis Felipe Tilleria and Nighat Qureishi.

In popular culture

Lord Blackadder, the titular hero of ''

Blackadder II ''Blackadder II'' is the second series of the BBC sitcom '' Blackadder'', written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 9 January 1986 to 20 February 1986. The series is set in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–16 ...

'', is said to have resided at Billingsgate, and in

Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

's '' Vanity Fair (Ch. 3)'', Mr. Sedley has "brought home the best

turbot The turbot (''Scophthalmus maximus'') is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is an im ...

in Billingsgate". Billingsgate is also referred to in the song " Sister Suffragette" 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 Francis Grose (born before 11 June 1731 – 12 May 1791) was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He produced ''A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'' (1785) and ''A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Prove ...

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 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 and Tower Bridge in the south-east of the Square Mile. The modern Ward extends south to the ...

—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