Billingsgate Market will close its existing location by 2028, ending an era of traditional wholesale trading at the site after the City of London Corporation withdrew support for a previously planned relocation to Dagenham due to cost increases. The market's future involves traders transitioning to new, modern, purpose-built locations selected with their involvement, ensuring they can meet evolving food safety standards and scalability for their businesses. The focus is on creating a positive, sustainable future for these historic businesses by empowering traders to establish themselves in new premises and by redeveloping the existing market sites.
Jason Holland. Billingsgate fish market – which is the oldest fish market in the U.K. capital of London and what was once the world's largest fish market – is set to close in 2028 after the City of London Corporation recently decided to withdraw its support.
Billingsgate's site near Canary Wharf is set to be transformed into some 4,000 new homes; meanwhile, Smithfield is set to be regenerated into a “cultural and commercial hub” to accompany the new London Museum, set to open next year in a once-abandoned section of the market.
The freehold owner of the site is the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, but the City of London Corporation still runs the market; they pay an annual ground rent stipulated in an agreement between the two councils as "the gift of one fish".
Uncertain waters: The future of London's historic Billingsgate fish market
Can the public buy from the billingsgate market?
Billingsgate fish market is where buyers from the best restaurants and fishmongers in London and the United Kingdom source their fish and seafood. Although it is a professional fish market, it's also open to the general public.
While many are concerned for traders and the loss of the market's unique sights, sounds and smells, the corporation's decision – blamed on rising costs – is just the latest step in the decades' long transformation of the wider Smithfield area.
What is the meat version of the Billingsgate market?
Smithfield Market
More than 100,000 tonnes of meat and allied products pass through Smithfield each year. Buyers include butchers, restaurateurs and caterers, as well as members of the public.
What is the future of Smithfield Billingsgate markets?
The markets will continue trading in their current locations until 2028, but the closure will mark an end to centuries of meat and fish trading in the city.
Billingsgate Market is in Poplar, in the London Docklands in south-east London. It's easy to get to the fish market: Poplar and Blackwall DLR stations are five minutes' walk away, and Canary Wharf Tube station (Jubilee and Elizabeth lines) is 10 minutes away on foot.
Billingsgate is served by almost every port in the United Kingdom. Most of the fish is transported by road directly from the coast and arrives at the market in the early hours of the morning.
Farewell to the original Billingsgate fish market, 1982. On the eve of the closure of old Billingsgate in 1982, the Observer took a valedictory tour of the fish market. Things had changed since the market opened in 1876, built on the site of a former Saxon port.
Billingsgate, former London market (closed 1982). It was situated in the City of London at the north end of London Bridge beside The Monument, which commemorates the outbreak of the Great Fire of September 1666.
99 Bishopsgate will be one of the tallest buildings in the City, replacing the 26-storey block already on the site. The redevelopment will also include new pedestrian routes, a market hall and a separate six-storey cultural building with an events hall, gallery and studios.
For most of that time, the sellers have been family firms, passing the trade from one generation to the next. But now, along with its sister, Smithfield meat market in Farringdon, the site is set to close by 2028, with its traders relocated. These are the last days of Billingsgate as we know it.
London's Billingsgate Fish Market, owned by the City of London Corporation, is the largest inland fish market in the UK. Regent Hill, a waste management and recycling company, takes advantage of the large amount of used fish boxes occurring at the market place.
The corporation announced the permanent closure of London's historic Smithfield meat market and Billingsgate fish market in late 2024, when it pulled the plug on a planned £1bn relocation to a new sitein the east of the capital at Dagenham.
Smithfield Market is the largest wholesale meat market in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. Located within the Square Mile of the City of London it is housed in two Grade-II listed buildings.
The historic meat market will move to a new location “within the M25” when its current location closes in 2028, a group representing traders said in a joint statement with the City of London on Monday.
Increased Costs – Farmers are facing higher feed, energy, and transportation costs, all of which contribute to rising beef prices. Labour Shortages – The UK's agricultural sector continues to experience labour shortages, affecting meat processing and butchery.
