London's Food Markets (1948)

you the sky of London darkens the day draws to a close all through the day the food shops the cafes and restaurants have served our food for the millions of Londoners the last purchases are made on one by one the shops closed down to the night oh well just closed up don't start stuffing your face with those didn't be ready in a couple of minutes the last meals are served in the milk bars snack bars restaurants and coffee stores but during the night bailar en train come new supplies from the farms the market gardens and the ports all this produce goes to the great markets of London inner London itself is well provided with good stations which handled food for the markets of these the most important are bishopsgate bricklayers arms nine elms some pancras and Paddington you at these good depots to avoid the risk of fire the locomotives are uncoupled and the wagons pulled in by cable and winch this train has brought brussel sprouts and tomatoes from the veil of each the food now goes out to wholesale merchants at London central market the most important our butter market Covent Garden smithfield spitalfields and Billingsgate let's look in particular at coffin garden here traffic is a big problem and the lot is have to part where they can sometimes it may be streets away from the market proper but this one arriving before midnight has found a vacant position near the charter market Porter's take the boxes into the cupboard parts of the market some of them go to store rooms and the rest are put on display by the wholesale merchant who sells to the local green grass 177 best cut 5 w-30 6 small white 60 w 36 more white 617 seven heads cut 5126 more white done 3 w 36 those two men were checking the different kinds of mushrooms here mushrooms are displayed beside lettuce and apples radishes in black and white grapes and more mushrooms are stacked for display the displays at last ready one by one the buyers arrive and commence their bargaining those sales don't begin until six o'clock here's a buyer looking for mom giving it I'll give you a five shillings that parcel what about it half way we make up your mind if you buy next I but no I won't give any more on five take the five if you like otherwise it won't have time I'll give another store they just do have a good everything I'll take it off whatever there are other down the arm mother Betty like this thomas e 16 is there a small buyers arrive and the market begins to get crowded though wholesalers buy outright and resell they also act as agents by finding purchases for growers and taking a percentage on the transaction about 500,000 tons of produce are still Covent Garden in a year and about half as much again is sold by wholesalers in surrounding streets as night mergers and today marketing reaches its peak when the local greengrocers have bought the fruit and vegetables they hire Porter's to take the produce to their lattes waiting in the side street near the market by the floral Hall some of the food starts its journey to the shops originally built as a ballroom the floral Hall in spite of its name cell from abroad covent garden is not only the distributing center for homegrown produce but also sells fruit and a son extent vegetables imported from the Empire and foreign country it is in fact a major fruit market for the whole of Great Britain as a market carbon garden has many problems and perhaps the greatest is the organization of its traffic but though carbon garden is congested spitalfields rebuilt in 1928 was and as far as possible for modern traffic like oven garden if two deals in fruit flowers and vegetables even inside the market the traffic is able to move about with ease except perhaps during the busy time good they don't be like spitalfields market has refrigeration plant so that fruit like these Italian peaches can be stored until required fruit from abroad usually comes into the darks of the Port of London ships with foreign meat likewise birth of the various dots the meat is generally taken first to the dark zone coals towards and is finally loaded onto lattes and with other foodstuffs goes to the markets the fruit goes to spit fuse carbon garden and bada markets the meat to Smithfield the largest meat market in the world Smithfield today does not handle as much meat as before the war but over 5,000 tons have been received sold and dispatched in one day some of the meat most is at meyerland comes by train from birkenhead and arrives at its railway defo underneath the market it's taken a lot to be weighed and hung and later is allocated to the butchers in addition to its markets for vegetables fruit and meat London has a famous fish market this is at Billingsgate and its history of trading goes back over a thousand years the only fish market in lunch it handles on an average 600 tons of fish of all sorts per day and feeds 10 to 12 million people the fish Porter is where the special have to protect our head we got running on the road Johnny it's very very shoulder don't ready ready 160 place and 16 years old yeah 472 very impressed don't stick so don't be very fun about you Mack we're gonna do it in gel is gonna tell us once it's aaron i do yes good morning early Ohio what's cookin for morning by phone the wholesaler learns what fish is coming into the port and decide what to order and climb up there there you go oxbridge fisheries you're right 50 big swings slide wing from the vendor yes they have two of this place man to automate their fourth right part of each consignment of fish is put on display in the market while the rest is kept on the railway lot is outside tickets worthless do you actually must have another long make sure yeah when the porters have been told to which shopkeepers vans to taste the fish the boxes are collected from the railway lines dotted about parked in favorite spots the retailer's ladas await the Potters with the moment fish ready at last the fishmongers Laden leaves of the shop and arrives about mid-morning from bidding the meat arrives from smithfield in addition to its shops London has many colorful bear markets so the shots are supplied and London is fed from the famous markets of carbon garden spital fuels Smithfield butter and billingsgate thus the food reaching London by night is distributed to the shops in the homes the next day