It takes its name from Billingsgate, a ward in the south-east corner of the City of London, where the riverside market was originally established.

The open space on the north of the well-remembered Billingsgate Dock was dotted with low booths and sheds, with a range of wooden houses with a piazza in front on the west, which served the salesmen and fishmongers as shelter, and for the purposes of carrying on their trade."

to rebuild and enlarge the market, which was done to plans by Bunning's successor as City architect Sir Horace Jones.

The new buildings, Italianate in style, had on their long frontages towards Thames Street the river, a pedimented centre and continuous arcade, flanked at each end by a pavilion tavern.

A gallery 30 feet (9.1 m) wide was allocated to the sale of dried fish, while the basement served as a market for shellfish.

[5] One of its earliest uses can be seen in a 1577 chronicle by Raphael Holinshed, where the writer makes reference to the foul tongues of Billingsgate oyster-wives.

In 1982, the fish market was relocated to a new 13-acre (53,000 m2) building complex on the Isle of Dogs in Poplar, close to Canary Wharf and Blackwall.