Billingsgate, London’s principal fish market, lies in the east of the city on the Isle of Dogs. It developed from a long-established market in a region in the City of London called Billingsgate. The market lay on the north bank of the River Thames just east of London Bridge.
Since 1699, Billingsgate Market has been restricted to fish only. In 1874, the British architect Sir Arthur Horace Jones designed a new building to house the market. Billingsgate Market moved to its present site on the Isle of Dogs in 1982. The word billingsgate has come to mean vulgar, abusive language, probably because such language was common at the fish market.
