Over 80 per cent of what is on the slate was bought at the Plymouth Fish Market auctions at Sutton Harbour by us that morning. Three stalls wide on the fish aisle inside the market, cleaned, scaled, filleted, boned and steaked to order across the counter. The supply line behind the rest, through the Rex Down family wholesale arm, runs back to the Plymouth Fish Quay in 1971.
Bream, brill, cod, dabs, Dover sole, gurnard, haddock, hake, John Dory, lemon sole, ling, mackerel, megrim, monkfish, pollack, red mullet, sand sole, turbot, whiting. Sold whole, or scaled, cleaned, filleted, boned and steaked to order across the counter. The morning auction at Sutton Harbour decides what makes the slate that afternoon.
Live crab and lobster in season, king prawns, scallops, mussels, clams, white crab meat, squid. The South West seasonal pattern runs the offer. Dressed crab and lobster prepared at the bench, platters and shellfish boxes built to order.
Smoked salmon, the Award-Winning Salcombe Smokies (smoked mackerel from Salcombe, the next coast east), fish pie mix, fish cakes, crab ravioli, fish broth, crab soup. Homemade sauces alongside, cooking advice given over the counter.
Eight ready-to-deliver boxes, from the Shellfish Selection through to the Deluxe Fish Selection. Built that morning from the day-boat counter, packed cold, out on the van the same day across Plymouth and the surrounding parishes.
Built from the morning auction counter at the stall. Packed cold on ice. Out on the Market Plaice van Tuesday to Saturday across Plymouth and the surrounding parishes. Order by phone on 01752 673200 or with the form below.
Dressed crab, raw prawns and scallops.
Crab, prawn and lobster claw mix for a platter.
Day-boat white fish, filleted, ready for the pan.
A heavier white-fish mix, two or three species deep.
Whatever came off the morning auction, prepped to order.
Steaks, fillets and skewers cut for the grill.
Cod, hake, haddock and pollack in family portions.
The full counter in one box. Wild bass, turbot, scallops, the lot.
The Market Plaice runs on a short supply line. The brothers who founded the stall in 2014 buy direct at the Plymouth Fish Market auctions at Sutton Harbour the morning the South West day boats land. Over 80 per cent of what reaches the slate at stalls 9, 10 and 11 comes that way, from the same waterfront the wholesale fish trade has worked since the post-war years.
The remaining 20 per cent comes through the Rex Down family wholesale line, the trade that supplies The Market Plaice with anything not landed locally that week. The Rex Down wholesale business was founded on the Barbican Fish Quay in 1971 and moved across to the modern Plymouth Fish Market when Sutton Harbour was redeveloped in the mid-1990s. It continues in the Down family today.
The result is a counter that is mostly day-boat Plymouth, with a documented wholesale line behind it when a customer wants something the local boats did not bring in. The fish does not pass through a national distribution centre and a chiller depot on the way to the slate. It comes from Sutton Harbour or from a known wholesale supplier with a fifty-year address on Plymouth's own quay.
“Over 80 per cent of the fish on the counter is caught off the shores of Plymouth. There are no long transport times and the fish is as fresh as it can be.” OM Plymouth Magazine, on the Market Plaice sourcing model
Two things shape the offer at stalls 9, 10 and 11. First, the buying. The fish on the slate is bought lot by lot at the Plymouth Fish Market auctions, per boat, per species. It is not picked from a wholesaler's pre-cut box. Second, the cutting. Filleting, scaling, boning, steaking, and pin-boning are done at the bench for the customer waiting. A supermarket sells fish only in pre-portioned packs, which removes the ability to cut to a specific weight or thickness for a recipe.
The three-stall consolidation matters here. The original fishmongers section of the market was a row of individual two-metre stalls. Today's counter, fronted by stalls 9, 10 and 11, is one continuous slate long enough to lay out a Dover sole or a whole turbot uncut for the customer to choose from before any cut is made. The live tank behind it carries brown crab and lobster in season, held alive until they hit the counter.
The market-stall rhythm is part of the specialism. Late opening on a Tuesday, 09:30 not 09:00, because the morning at Sutton Harbour runs longer when the auction overspills. Saturday closes tight at 13:00 because the morning shop is the trade. Closed Sundays and Mondays. The day moves with the boats, not the high street.
Plymouth Market is a Grade II listed post-war retail hall built 1959 to 1960, bounded by Cornwall Street on the north and Market Avenue on the south. The fish aisle sits on the Market Avenue side. The Barbican and Sutton Harbour, where the day boats land, are a fifteen-minute walk south through Frankfort Gate and Notte Street.
If your question is not here, drop a note to contact@themarketplaiceplymouth.co.uk or phone the stall during opening hours.
Stalls 9, 10 and 11 on the fish aisle inside Plymouth Market, Cornwall Street. The market entrance is the Cornwall Street side. We are the long three-stall counter, not the cafe or the deli. The Barbican and Sutton Harbour are a fifteen-minute walk south.
Over 80 per cent is bought by us direct at the Plymouth Fish Market auctions at Sutton Harbour the morning the day boats land. The other 20 per cent comes through the Rex Down family wholesale line for anything not landed locally that week. There is no long transport in the middle.
Yes, free at the counter. Ask for whole, gutted, filleted, scaled, pin-boned or steaked, and the thickness if you have a recipe in mind. The three-stall length means we can lay out a Dover sole or a whole turbot uncut for you to choose from before we cut.
Yes. Eight boxes on the page above from the Shellfish Selection at £30 through to the Deluxe Fish Selection at £60, or build your own by phone. Plymouth and the surrounding parishes, Tuesday to Saturday. Phone the stall on 01752 673200 or use the form below.
Award-Winning smoked mackerel from Salcombe, the next coast east of Plymouth, about thirty miles along the South Devon coast. Sold from the counter ready to eat, cold from the fridge, no extra preparation needed.
We trade better from the market floor than a high-street shopfront. The footfall is the regulars and the lunchtime crowd, the counter is long enough to talk a customer through what just landed, and the buying is across the road at Sutton Harbour every morning. It suits a wet fishmonger.