3-034-668 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A fish auction in Columbia Market, [east London], 1871. '...the magnificent structure known as Columbia Market...was erected by Lady Burdett-Coutts at a cost of upwards of £200,000...[It] has been given to the Corporation of London, in perpetual trust, to be used for the benefit of the poorer classes as a market for cheap articles of food, with a special recommendation that the sale of fish be promoted and assisted by all convenient arrangements for that purpose. An Illustration is now presented of the scene there to be witnessed at an early hour of the morning, when the first load of fish is sold by auction to the retail dealers, who will hawk it through the streets. Lady Burdett-Coutts has expressed her opinion that it is most desirable to encourage the use of fresh fish as a common article of diet for the poor in London, in preference to inferior portions or qualities of butcher's meat, now so terribly dear. This notion, we believe, is founded upon the advice of the best authorities in medical and physiological science. The supply of fish might, no doubt, be increased to a great extent by improved traffic arrangements on the railways connecting London with the eastern, southern, and western coasts of Great Britain'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.