The Old Fish and Potatoe Market Exeter

This scene shows a bustling trading day at the Fish, Potato and Oat Market. The market was reached by a narrow passage off High Street near to the Swan Tavern (shown on the right of the picture). Traders are selling fish from stalls and oysters from baskets. The Tavern was ‘noted for good home-brewed beer. It was a great resort at lunch time for the tradesmen, who enjoyed their glass, with cakes, oysters, or cockles’. It was demolished in 1834 during the building of Queen Street.

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Visual description: Watercolour painting of a market square. In the foreground on the right, there is a pub. Three women sit outside the pub behind baskets of their wares while a couple of customers look on. To the left, two women carrying baskets converse. More people with baskets, sacks and wheelbarrows visit the rooved stalls that line two sides of the square. Signposts above individual stalls indicate that several stalls are selling fish. In the stalls at the far end of the square, a crowd of people gather. Four horses wait outside.