Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

London River-side Fish Market Acts 1882 and 1885
London Riverside Fish Market (Transfer to Corporation of London) Act 1901
6.94 The preamble to the London River-side Fish Market Act 1882 161 recorded that
“the establishment of a market for the sale of Fish in the parish of St Paul
Shadwell [in east London] … would be of local and public utility”. The Act
accordingly incorporated the London River-side Fish Market Company with power
to acquire land and establish and maintain a public market for the sale of fish on
any day except Sundays. The Company’s powers to lay out the site of the market
were to expire on 24 July 1887. These powers proved insufficient and the London
River-side Fish Market Act 1885 162 increased the Company’s powers and
extended to 24 July 1892 the time limit for completing the market works. The fish
market was duly completed using these increased powers, before being sold to
the City of London in 1901. This sale was pursuant to an agreement dated 10
July 1900 and confirmed by the London Riverside Fish Market (Transfer to
Corporation of London) Act 1901. 163 Under this Act, the Company was dissolved
and the whole of its undertaking was vested in the City of London.
6.95 During the early years of the 20 th century the demand for a fish market in the
Shadwell area diminished. An Act of 1912 recorded that “it has been found that
no public demand has existed or now exists for the holding of a fish or other
market on the site prescribed in that behalf by [the 1882 Act] and it is expedient
that the obligation to provide and maintain the said market should be repealed
and that the lands comprised in the said undertaking should be used for other
purposes.” 164
6.96 The closure of the Shadwell fish market in the early 1900s meant that the 1882,
1885 and 1901 Acts all became obsolete. The site of the former market is now
part of the park known as the King Edward Memorial Park or Shadwell Park
which was opened by King George V in 1922. 165
161 45 & 46 Vict. c.cxlvi.
162 48 & 49 Vict. c.xlix.
163 1 Edw.7 c.lxxi.
164 City of London (Various Powers) Act 1912 (2 & 3 Geo.5 c.xlii), preamble.
165 The park was a project taken forward in memory of King Edward VII. The City of London
agreed to sell its interest in the site for £70,000. The park is today owned by the London
Borough of Tower Hamlets.
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