fishing the press on Billingsgate

by Matthew Lindop








The latest news say the porters of historical Billingsgate market, dating from 1327, handed in the petition to the Mayor of London against City of London Corporation's intention to withdraw the old byelaws. The intention to introduce new bye-laws, their union,Unite, claims, would 'destroy this important market'.

Although the porters are supported by some important figures as Ken Livingstone and Harry Redknapp, City of London seems determined about its future, ensuring the new bye laws are only opening greater job opportunities, and the old ones are revoked for not being modern enough (dating from Victorian times). The new ones are defended as more competitive. Knowing the market has already been relocated from the historical building (built in 1876 by John Mowlem, designed by Sir Horace Jones) to the building complex close to Canary Wharf in 1982, the changes are clearerly the reflection of Corporation's demand for catching up with the sign of the times.