The Billingsgate Fishwives

_{3 mins to read | March 4th, 2026}

From the 1300’s fish was unloaded at Billingsgate market in the City of London on the north bank of the River Thames and was processed by an army of women known as the 'Billingsgate Fishwives'. It was dirty, physical and smelly work.

A fishwife didn’t just clean and process fish, she bought her own fish, put them in a basket on her head and headed out into the mean streets of the City where she would encounter starving beggars and drunkards…so she had to be very streetwise and often came across criminals happy to relieve her of her money and her mackerel.

However, it was a good business model. She bought fish very cheaply and undercut other traders as she was on foot.

In the Tudor period, the City had grown and there were more mouths to feed. In 1699, Billingsgate was made the official fish market for the City. The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers were given authority to set the prices and look at the quality of fish but the fishwives ignored that and just continued as before.

Their behaviour was notable – they drank, smoke and spent it on whatever they liked. They were also involved in light prostitution, occasionally river piracy and often came into conflict with the authorities. In 1678 a group appeared in court - probably civil disorder. The judge wrote they were impudent women who smoked and were drunk.

In 1703 a journalist accidentally entered a wrong door in Billingsgate and found himself amongst the fish wives in a boozy drinking space. They were all inebriated – there were cat-calls and cheeky comments – he hastily left!

The fishwife became a nationally recognised stereotype – a symbol of all that’s wrong with Georgian women of a certain class – she was vulgar, had fights and possessed loose morals. But she also had other qualities – she was proud, courageous with no time for pretentions and she was patriotic - defending Britain against unwelcome foreigners eg the Frenchman; she is usually depicted in cartoons attacking him with a bottle or a lobster. She tells politicians off for being cowardly and not doing the right thing. Over the centuries, the Fishwives survive plagues and fires but they cannot survive the Victorians….

In 1877, Billingsgate was rebuilt with a modern cold store which was state of the art. It still needed people to clean and gut fish but not these vulgar independent fishwives.

Only the cartoons are left and the common insult ‘she’s a right Fishwife!’ meaning vulgar with bad language. However, she made a major contribution to the lifeblood of the City over the centuries and many of her vices were indeed virtues.