Billingsgate Market merchants and products

Date updated: 25/02/2025

Merchants

The merchants are firms or individuals who rent selling space on the floor of the Market and are tenants of the City of London Corporation.

London Fish Merchants Association

The London Fish Merchants Association is a body which represents the merchants' trading interests, while Billingsgate Traders Ltd represents the interests of the tenants in their dealings with the City Corporation and has representatives on the Market's statutory Consultative Advisory Committee.

Email London Fish Merchants

Market's cold store

The Market's cold store is leased to, and operated by, a subsidiary company of the Merchants Association.

The Market complex also houses several firms who trade in goods and services ancillary to the fish trade -cooking oils, potatoes, catering supplies, trade utensils and a laundry.

A recent addition is a new distribution cold store centre built by a Merchant with assistance from an EU grant and the City Corporation.

Buyers

The buyers are:

Fishmongers
Fish catering suppliers
Fish-and-chip shops
Delicatessens
Publicans
Restaurateurs
Cafe owners
Embassies
Specialist fish suppliers
World renowned chefs
Some of London's most famous department stores and from the country's greatest hotels: these are the people who comprise an essential part of any market.

It is the demand created by these various buyers which stimulates the merchants to seek and offer new and improved supplies. Billingsgate is, by law, a "free and open" Market giving everyone the right to attend the Market during trading hours and to purchase fish from any merchant who is willing to serve them. Sales are by private treaty between the parties concerned and no auctioning of fish takes place in the Market.