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Christmas in London 2009: Butchers and Fishmongers
Christmas Fishmongers

Christmas Fishmongers

Smoked salmon is the traditional Christmas fish, popular not just for its flavour, but for the ease of preparation, and the fact that it won't go off during the festive period. In these days, when the shops are open so much of the time, fresh fish has also begun to find its way onto Christmas tables.

Covent Garden Fishmongers

37 Turnham Green Terrace, London, W4 1RG
Sustainability is the watchword for this longstanding local favourite, and everything here is impeccably sourced. Christmas shoppers may be more excited by the labour-saving options available, which include ready-made fish soup and first-class potted shrimp and crab. The chatty owner is always helpful and will point you in the direction of anything in his stock he regards as particularly fine.

Covent Garden Fishmongers - Information

Cape Clear Fish Shop

119 Shepherds Bush Road, London, W6 7LP
Heston Blumenthal is a man obsessed with perfection to a quite unhealthy degree, so it’s no surprise that the shop that supplies his Bray restaurant is among the best in London – and has also picked up other prestige customers, including Nobu and Zuma. It’s run by former chefs, so prepared dishes like monkfish curry and seabass escabeche are excellent. They also have a certain flair for the dramatic, and the piles of fish and crustaceans on ice are seldom anything less than spectacular.

Smoked salmon: £7/225g

Cape Clear Fish Shop - Information

Walter Purkis and Sons

17 The Broadway, London, N8 8DU
The century-old smokehouse at the rear of Walter Purkis provides excellent, and reasonably priced, smoked salmon to both branches (the other is in Muswell Hill) of this family fishmonger. It’s the salmon that creates queues every Christmas, but if you’re after something a bit more unusual, a twice-weekly delivery brings in shellfish and exotic fish from Europe, and they also get daily supplies of quality fresh fish from Billingsgate Market and fishmongers around the UK.

Walter Purkis and Sons - Information

The Fish Shop at Kensington Place

201 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 7LX
This tidy little fishmongers attached to a restaurant has the largest and most impressive items of its stock on view, so if you’re planning whole seabass or salmon for a Christmas meal, you’ll be able to check out the options immediately. If fillets and fruits de mer are what you’re after, ask the (always helpful) staff and they can usually find whatever you’re looking for in one of the many fridges and compartments that allows the Fish Shop to offer a selection quite out of proportion to its size. It’s also possible to get some of the restaurant’s signature dishes pre-prepared to take home and cook. Choosy Kensington foodies – including the River Cafe's Ruth Rodgers – are the main customers, and so standards have to be kept extremely high.

The Fish Shop at Kensington Place - Information