Following on from my post last week about the closure of the banking hall in the Williamsburg Bank Building, another New York institution that is about to pass into history is the Fulton Fish Market. My former colleague, Robert Jobson, who has spent most of his life living on the Cornish Coast in England, recommended the fish market to me the first time I visited New York. For him it easily outranked the Empire State Building and Central Park as New York’s top attraction. Little did I know you had to be up before the sun to fully appreciate it.
If you can muster the energy to drag yourself down to the fish market early enough in the morning the trip will be well worth it. You can’t buy your own fish unless you’re prepared to buy it by the crate. But it is interesting to walk among the forklifts whizzing to and fro, to watch the workers slicing up giant tuna and chatting over a hot tea or coffee with their fish hooks swung over their shoulder, and to observe a slice of New York that is about to disappear for good.
The market has occupied a place near the South Street Seaport beneath the gaze of the Brooklyn Bridge for 185 years. Now it is scheduled to move to Hunts Point in the Bronx in the next few weeks. In fact, it has been in the process of moving to Hunts Point for the past year as about half a dozen stumbling blocks have forced the relocation to be continuously postponed. The latest reason is a row over who can haul seafood in the new $85 million, 300,000-square-foot building. But the move cannot be far away.
I would also recommend a good pair of boots and a change of trousers. Either that or be prepared to smell of fish for the rest of the day.
Fishy links:
The Last Days of the Fulton Fish Market (Great pic and story)
The Food Museum dubs Fulton Fish Market a Global Food Heritage Site.
More Fulton fishy photos
Bronx businesses wait and wait and wait for fish to show.
Wow, great pictures. And love that forklift! I have been meaning to get down there to the fish market for quite some time now, and you’ve inspired me. How early is early?
We got there about 6.30am—which was pretty late! I understand it’s even better a little earlier!
Nearly the last whiff of the Fulton Fish Market
The 185-year-old Fulton Fish Market has been in its “final days” for almost a year now as lawsuits and constrution problems have delayed the fishmongers’ move to the Bronx. Freelance writer Paul Berger, who blogs at Englishman in New…
[...] And what of the Englishman in New York? Well he got out of bed before sunrise to explore the soon-to-be-gone delights of Fulton Fish Market. [...]
i worked inthe fish market for 6 years what an experience i couldnt ask for a better bunch of guys to work with