Part three in the series. The London Markets. The Fruit and Veg Market.

As another day draws to a close in the capital, the night-time world of London's wholesale food markets is beginning to stir.

Between them, these London institutions have been supplying the city with fish, meat and fruit and vegetables for centuries, and are a rich theme in London's history.

And what will their role be in the London of tomorrow?

New Spitalfields, in the east end of London, is Britain's largest wholesale food market.

At midnight, 150 traders gather to buy and sell over 4,000 tonnes of fresh produce every night.

It literally has been growing until 4 or 05:00 in the afternoon and it will be served up for breakfast in a West End restaurant.

That's how efficient we can be in this way.

What's that word we don't use in the trade?

You'll find every type of fruit and veg under the sun here, produce unheard of in Britain a generation ago.

That's a pepino melon, you know, grows on a tree, actual fact.

And people from the far corners of the world looking for a better life.

When Spitalfields left its original site in the heart of London 21 years ago, the old market changed forever.

New traders moved in to serve the growing immigrant communities of the East End, people for whom food had a deeper meaning.

In this changing world, the traditional greengrocer is struggling to survive.

Dying industry, Greengrocers, people used to sell fruit and veg, no more.

You've been up all night counting your money?

3 quarters of a billion pounds change his hands here every year.

But only those that are willing to adapt will survive.

Peter Thomas has worked in spittle fields since he was 15 years old.

As a boy, he'd sit alongside his dad in their lorry and soak up the tricks of the trade.

Nearly 40 years later, he's 1 of the market's most powerful buyers.

Having your hands wrapped right round your business, like an octopus.

Having your hands wrapped right round the business.

Particularly now, when things are so hard.

You can't afford to leave a stone unturned.

Every night, Peter will spend more than £25,000 here, buying for everyone from Her Majesty's prisons to schools and hospitals, as well as many of London's finest restaurants.

In the run-up to Christmas, Peter is under pressure to hunt down an important order.

Do you sell long aubergine, Japanese aubergine?

I might have to send normal ones out, which I don't really like doing.

And I must fulfil that order, otherwise I drive me mad if I don't.

No, all he ever done was sold potatoes, my dad.

Some of you should ask him for a box of cabbage, he thinks he's the end of the world.

That's what we've done, we only sold potatoes to fish and chip shops and pie shops.

I mean, they're coming to a stage with me dad that I said, Dad, we can't carry on doing this.

The catering business is far bigger and greater than what we're doing.

Peter and his dad started with 1 wheelbarrow to deliver their potatoes.

It was quite a notorious, tough school, you know.

And, unfortunately, I couldn't keep out of trouble.

I was quite a good footballer and done all good sports, but academically I weren't that successful.

So consequently, they told me they didn't require my services slightly earlier than perhaps normal kids do.

And they did say to me, my headmaster didn't like me 1 bit.

He said, son, you'll be in the gutter all your life.

And it's probably the best thing that everyone's ever said to me.

He went on to grow his family business into a multi-million pound fruit and veg empire.

Well, you know what I mean by Jack of the knees, don't you?

It's for a special customer, and it's going to

drive me fucking mad if you don't get it.

I don't care if you have got to drive half hour, go and drive half hour and go and get it.

All good leaders are up there at the front with their soldiers, you know what I mean?

All the Nelsons, all the Wellertons, that was all there, mate.

But there are others in the market who are finding it harder to adapt to London's changing tastes.

Bill's family business has been selling traditional British vegetables like turnips and celery since the 1860s.

You used to sell a lot of celery, did you?

don't see much celery in the market, actually.

It's an old name as well, Hassy, they don't see Hassy's Celery any more.

It's not, there's so many things just not fashionable anymore because girls think that, young wives now think that everything grows on trees wrapped in cellophane.

Vegetables were grown in British soil and delivered to the market.

Bill's family would then sell them on to local greengrocers, whose customers were traditionally British housewives.

This business had hardly changed since the market first opened in 1638.

the last 20 years, the rise of the supermarkets has put many green grocers out of business and wholesalers like Bill have seen their livelihoods wither away.

See, I just sold a banana, it's made me a pound.

Emin was born and raised in the East End to Turkish Cypriot parents.

He left school at 16 to join the fruit and veg trade and now runs his own stall.

But these days he's finding the game harder than ever.

You know, mushrooms and all, look, mushrooms here.

And, I mean, I wouldn't let my son come in this business.

It's all build on trust, but I'd rather serve the little man than the big boys.

If big boys come on here, I won't entertain them.

For some traders, the sight of Peter approaching their stand is cause for alarm.

He's a master in the art of haggling and deploys every trick in the book to get the best price.

Never rush onto a firm because he thinks you'll get a bit excited, so you just stroll on.

It puts potatoes in the microwave, keeps your hands warm.

We warm up potatoes and put them in our pocket.

Let me have another look at that, what's that?

How's that carpet and half of them Ribbon Blues?

you got a three-year stretch in prison, if you got 3 years or more in prison, you got put in prison for 3 years or more, you'd get a piece

I've got a carpet for a pallet and it tends.

had been a different mark, I'd have given you a bit more money.

I don't want you to be honest and don't be serious.

To be honest with you, truthfully, I'm rather busy.

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