Billingsgate Fish Market

Lying in the shadow of Canary Wharf between the banks and their billions miss Britain's biggest inland
fish market. What goes on here is very similar to what goes on just over there in Canary.

Would you've gone over the whole to sell to buy you know as he's probably a little bit more precarious
because it's a perishable item.

Billingsgate is a slice of old London whose values and traditions were as old as the city itself as why it was
centuries ago. Victorian on over, the London's changing and Billingsgate must adapt to the changing tastes
of the city's people.

Outside 70% of our business if it weren't for them wouldn't be worth opening.

These are tough times for fish merchants: dwindling fish stocks, the rise of the supermarkets and a deep
recession means making money is harder than ever.

It's the toughest time finding business and nearly all the tenants will sell you on site.

The pressure to survive is beginning to threaten the traditions of the market itself.

Even the job of the licensed fish porter, once a job for life, could be thrown open to all comers.

So, what's next getting rid of firefighters in the Tower of London? To put it in? Get rid of red buses? We
keep me two black cabs? Yeah, we'd be rolling away one with.

London's oldest wholesale market is on the verge of its biggest change in over a thousand years. The market
is divided. Will ancient custom or modern Commerce win out? The Battle of Billings game has just begun.

Terrible watch. But when they were coming over from Dunkirk, they never learned about the weather did
they?

I thought you were good. Roger Barton is one of the markets most successful merchants. He's worked in
Billingsgate for 51 years.
It's November. Violent storms are sweeping the country, keeping our fishing fleet in port.

The fish scare… some prices… Hi Roger, spot an opportunity? If I can get hold of more fish than any
other my opponents or by the lot, then it helps me. Put it like that. If I can beat them to the gun, then that's
what I've got to do. That's what I get paid for. And, if I'm not good enough they'll beat me and help me.
Help your brother, please. I'm gonna do Peter here. I'm gonna go bright, and I've got to go. Wow. I'm
gonna do anything I can. Got to try to get something. Can't stand here with em. Just all what I put out there
for so I take that one because see what usually well.

I'd love to let you do these, but you won't because you're not good enough. But, take all the stripes up the
market floor.

In just the shop-window behind-the-scenes, an army of porters move boxes of fish from cold store to
fish store. Then, out to the battalions of white vans that keep the city fed with fish, Chris is the latest in a
long line of guild to work as a fish porter.

I work for Roger Barton. It is four of us on. Yup, yeah Jeff. He works out to be new. You should be six-
foot. Sixty from schools to hospitals. Michelin star restaurants to the fish and chip shop.

At the end of the road in Billingsgate, customers buy 25,000 tons of fish each year. Fish cannot be moved
by merchants nor customer could, only by the licensed porters. Walking up to 13 miles a night,
they each carry around a ton of fish. Men like these have been moving fish since it has been in times
between 1579 and 1584. There was the Fellowship of Porters. It was set up to establish a licensed body of
men who had to be a person of good character, and he was issued with a license.

The bells by which the porters operate have changed little for centuries. Whilst trading begins at 2 a.m.,
fish cannot be moved until the 5 o'clock bell tolls. The bell goes for delivering that to the outside. Customers
listen. Market or 1878 Baltazar.

Paid by an archaic system called ensure and Bobby, which sets a price in pence for each stone of fish
carried, the ensure dates back to when the boats used to come up to Tim's and certain porters used to have
to go onto the boats and walk the snap off on their head and to go onto the shore. To earn a reasonable
week's money, you've got a shift of considerable amount at fish.
This is me parchment. It is my license. So, we get it get stamped every year. You pay a schilling, and you
can see on there. The date is 1878. This should. That's when these bylaws were made.
You proud of that?

Yeah, I am because I'm quite a lover of history, especially done in history. And, we are part of the old
traditions. That is what is being in the City of London.

But many believe the age-old traditions are detrimental to commercial success. The markets owners, the
corporation of London want Billingsgate to modernize after 400 years. The job of the licensed fish vendor
is under threat.

They will all be put out of work. We'll all lose our jobs that's the rumor going around anyway. So part of
London's tradition and heritage I think it's really important that we keep it.

5:15 this gem box I thought what… The kind of trading on the market floor is a cut-throat business. They
are like that. Or, they are like there's nothing in between. Why? What you want mate? All right five
voltage. I'll thank the hour. Please don't be horrible I got two kids in Texas.

Tenants or fish merchants must source the freshest fish at the lowest prices and shift it quickly before it
goes off. The faster the sale, the fresher the fish, the higher the price.

Excuse me. Can you wait? Eight waiting and there.

These are predators at the top of a highly competitive food chain. It is no place for a minor.

This is Sita. He's been sent from Sri Lanka by his family to try and sell fish into the lucrative British market.

Such a diverse bunch in all my life and I've dealt with some real villain. I think I will be next.

And don't remember to come on the stand and I'll stick the bottle of booze straight up his ass right okay
now. Roger has agreed to try out some of Sita's fish and now he's come to oversee the delivery 3,000
pounds worth of tuna and swordfish.
I know one thing. If I do the right thing in right way, the way they like, then it's not very difficult. So, we
are wising on.

But the consignment is three hours late.

It's now 10 to 3:00 in Billingsgate now. I'm still waiting for the stuff it should be into buildings guy. I
should be checking it, looking it, and if it's good I should be on that phone. I should be selling it.

The 300 kilos of fish arrived at Heathrow over 12 hours ago there seems to have got lost somewhere in
between…