Top Tips For Buying At Billingsgate

Today Billingsgate gets though 480 tonnes of fish a week, although in its heyday the figure was nearer 400 tonnes a day. Anyone can buy fish from the market; the London Paper ran an article the other day and gave some handy tips on doing so

1. Billingsgate wakes up early in the morning but the best time for the public is from 6:30am. It is generally all over by 8.
2. Prices vary from stall to stall, but all sell for a fraction of supermarket prices.
3. For rock bottom prices try last thing on a Saturday morning when the sellers will be trying to shift the remainder of their stock before the week’s end.
4. Buy in bulk – that’s what freezers are for.
5. Be prepared to gut and fillet the fish yourself as the stall holders will not do it for you.
6. The freshest fish have sparkling eyes with a gold outline around the iris. Anything dull or sunken is a sign of age.
7. The freshest fish also have a thin sheen or slime on the body, they should be gleaming.
8. Oily fish should be be in rigor mortis when you buy them; they shouldn’t flop about.

Billingsgate Fish Market, Trafalgar Way, London E14. Open Tuesday to Saturday 5.00am – 8.30am.

There is a Seafood Training School offering both morning and evening courses. The full day Knife Skills program, for example, costs £165, or £190 if you want to include a formal tour of the market. You get to keep the fish you tackle during the course.