London Labour and the London Poor: Selection (Classics) (18 page)

‘Ah, sir! I live very poorly. A ha’porth or a penn’orth of cheap fish, which I cook myself, is one of my treats – either herrings or plaice – with a ’tatur, perhaps. Then there’s a sort of meal, now and then, off the odds and ends of the ham, such as isn’t quite viewy enough for the public, along with the odds and ends of the loaves. I can’t boil a bit of greens with my ham, ’cause I’m afraid it might rather spoil the colour. I don’t slice the ham till it’s cold – it cuts easier, and is a better colour then, I think. I wash my aprons, and sleeves, and cloths myself, and iron them too. A man that
sometimes makes only 3
s
. 6
d
. a week, and sometimes less, and must pay 2
s
. rent out of that, must look after every farthing. I’ve often walked eight miles to see if I could find ham a halfpenny a pound cheaper anywhere. If it was tainted, I know it would be flung in my face. If I was sick there’s only the parish for me.’

Of the Street-sale of Drinkables

[p. 191] The street-sellers of the drinkables, who have now to be considered, belong to the same class as I have described in treating of the sale of street-provisions generally. The buyers are not precisely of the same class, for the street-eatables often supply a meal, but with the exception of the coffee-stalls, and occasionally of the rice-milk, the drinkables are more of a luxury than a meal. Thus the buyers are chiefly those who have ‘a penny to spare’, rather than those who have ‘a penny to dine upon’. I have described the different classes of purchasers of each potable, and perhaps the accounts – as a picture of street-life – are even more curious than those I have given of the purchasers of the eatables – of (literally) the diners
out
.

Of Coffee-stall Keepers

[pp.
191
–6] The vending of tea and coffee, in the streets, was little if at all known twenty years ago, saloop being then the beverage supplied from stalls to the late and early wayfarers. Nor was it until after 1842 that the stalls approached to anything like their present number, which is said to be upwards of 300 – the majority of the proprietors being women. Prior to 1824, coffee was in little demand, even among the smaller tradesmen or farmers, but in that year the duty having been reduced from 1
s
. to 6
d
. per lb., the consumption throughout the kingdom in the next seven years was nearly trebled, the increase being from 7,933,041 lbs., in 1824, to 22,745,627 lbs., in 1831. In 1842, the duty on coffee, was fixed at 4
d
., from British possessions, and from foreign countries at 6
d
.

But it was not owing solely to the reduced price of coffee, that the street-vendors of it increased in the year or two subsequent to 1842, at least 100 per cent. The great facilities then offered for a cheap adulteration, by mixing ground chicory with the ground coffee, was an enhancement of the profits, and a greater temptation to embark in the business, as a smaller amount of capital would suffice. Within these two or three years, this cheapness has been still further promoted, by the medium of
adulteration, the chicory itself being, in its turn, adulterated by the admixture of baked carrots, and the like saccharine roots, which, of course, are not subjected to any duty, while foreign chicory is charged 6
d
. per lb. English chicory is not chargeable with duty, and is now cultivated, I am assured, to the yield of between 4,000 and 5,000 tons yearly, and this nearly all used in the adulteration of coffee. Nor is there greater culpability in this trade among street-vendors, than among ‘respectable’ shopkeepers; for I was assured, by a leading grocer, that he could not mention twenty shops in the city, of which he could say: ‘You can go and buy a pound of ground coffee there, and it will not be adulterated.’ The revelations recently made on this subject by the
Lancet
are a still more convincing proof of the
general
dishonesty of grocers.

The coffee-stall keepers generally stand at the corner of a street. In the fruit and meat markets there are usually two or three coffee-stalls, and one or two in the streets leading to them; in Covent-garden there are no less than four coffee-stalls. Indeed, the stalls abound in all the great thoroughfares, and the most in those not accounted ‘fashionable’ and great ‘business’ routes, but such as are frequented by working people, on their way to their day’s labour. The best ‘pitch’ in London is supposed to be at the corner of Duke-street, Oxford-street. The proprietor of that stall is said to take full 30
s
. of a morning, in halfpence. One stall-keeper, I was informed, when ‘upon the drink’ thinks nothing of spending his 10
l
. or 15
l
. in a week. A party assured me that once, when a stall-keeper above mentioned was away ‘on the spree’, he took up his stand there, and got from 4
s
. to 5
s
. in the course of ten minutes, at the busy time of the morning.

The coffee-stall usually consists of a spring-barrow, with two, and occasionally four, wheels. Some are made up of tables, and some have a tressel and board. On the top of this are placed two or three, and sometimes four, large tin cans, holding upon an average five gallons each. Beneath each of these cans is a small iron fire-pot, perforated like a rushlight shade, and here charcoal is continually burning, so as to keep the coffee or tea hot, with which the cans are filled, hot throughout the early part of the morning. The board of the stall has mostly a compartment for bread and butter, cake, and ham sandwiches, and another for the coffee mugs. There is generally a small tub under each of the stalls, in which the mugs and saucers are washed. The ‘grandest’ stall in this line is the one before-mentioned, as standing at the corner of Duke-street, Oxford-street (of which an engraving is here given). It is a large truck on four wheels, and painted a bright green. The cans are four in number, and of bright polished

THE LONDON COFFEE-STALL.

tin, mounted with brass-plates. There are compartments for bread and butter, sandwiches, and cake. It is lighted by three large oil lamps, with bright brass mountings, and covered in with an oil-cloth roof. The coffee-stalls, generally, are lighted by candle-lamps. Some coffee-stalls are covered over with tarpaulin, like a tent, and others screened from the sharp night or morning air by a clothes-horse covered with blankets, and drawn half round the stall.

Some of the stall-keepers make their appearance at twelve at night, and some not till three or four in the morning. Those that come out at midnight, are for the accommodation of the ‘night-walkers’ – ‘fast gentlemen’ and loose girls; and those that come out in the morning, are for the accommodation of the working men.

It is, I may add, piteous enough to see a few young and good-looking girls, some without the indelible mark of habitual depravity on their countenances, clustering together for warmth round a coffee-stall, to which a penny expenditure, or the charity of the proprietor, has admitted them. The thieves do not resort to the coffee-stalls, which are so immediately under the eye of the policeman.

The coffee-stall keepers usually sell coffee and tea, and some of them cocoa. They keep hot milk in one of the large cans, and coffee, tea, or cocoa in the others. They supply bread and butter, or currant cake, in slices – ham sandwiches, water-cresses, and boiled eggs. The price is 1
d
. per mug, or ½
d
. per half-mug, for coffee, tea, or cocoa; and ½
d
. a slice the bread and butter or cake. The ham sandwiches are 2
d
. (or 1
d
.) each, the boiled eggs 1
d
., and the water-cresses a halfpenny a bunch. The coffee, tea, cocoa, and sugar they generally purchase by the single pound, at a grocer’s. Those who do an extensive trade purchase in larger quantities. The coffee is usually bought in the berry, and ground by themselves. All purchase chicory to mix with it. For the coffee they pay about 1
s
.; for the tea about 3
s
.; for the cocoa 6
d
. per lb.; and for the sugar 3½
d
. to 4
d
. For the chicory the price is 6
d
. (which is the amount of the duty alone on foreign chicory), and it is mixed with the coffee at the rate of 6 ozs. to the pound; many use as much as 9 and 12 ozs. The coffee is made of a dark colour by means of what are called ‘finings’, which consist of burnt sugar – such, as is used for browning soups. Coffee is the article mostly sold at the stalls; indeed, there is scarcely one stall in a hundred that is supplied with tea, and not more than a dozen in all London that furnish cocoa. The stall-keepers usually make the cake themselves. A 4 lb. cake generally consists of half a pound of currants, half a pound of sugar, six ounces of beef dripping, and a quartern of flour. The ham for sandwiches costs 5½
d
. or 6
d
. per lb.;
and when boiled produces in sandwiches about 2
s
. per lb. It is usually cut up in slices little thicker than paper. The bread is usually ‘second bread’; the butter, salt, at about 8
d
. the pound. Some borrow their barrows, and pay 1
s
. a week for the hire of them. Many borrow the capital upon which they trade, frequently of their landlord. Some get credit for their grocery – some for their bread. If they borrow, they pay about 20 per cent. per week for the loan. I was told of one man that makes a practice of lending money to the coffee-stall-keepers and other hucksters, at the rate of at least 20 per cent, a week. If the party wishing to borrow a pound or two is unknown to the money-lender, he requires security, and the interest to be paid him weekly. This money-lender, I am informed, has been transported once for receiving stolen property, and would now purchase any amount of plate that might be taken to him.

The class of persons usually belonging to the business have been either cab-men, policemen, labourers, or artisans. Many have been bred to dealing in the streets, and brought up to no other employment, but many have taken to the business owing to the difficulty of obtaining work at their own trade. The generality of them are opposed to one another. I asked one in a small way of business what was the average amount of his profits, and his answer was:

‘I usually buy 10 ounces of coffee a night. That costs, when good, 1
s
. 0½
d
. With this I should make five gallons of coffee, such as I sell in the street, which would require 3 quarts of milk, at 3
d
. per quart, and 1½ lb. of sugar, at 3½
d
. per lb., there is some at 3
d
. This would come to 2
s
. 2¾
d
.; and, allowing 1½
d
. for a quarter of a peck of charcoal to keep the coffee hot, it would give 2
s
. 4
d
. for the cost of five gallons of coffee. This I should sell out at about 1½
d
. per pint; so that the five gallons would produce me 5
s
., or 2
s
. 8
d
. clear. I generally get rid of one quartern loaf and 6 oz. of butter with this quantity of coffee, and for this I pay 5
d
. the loaf and 3
d
. the butter, making 8
d
.; and these I make into twenty-eight slices at ½
d
. per slice; so the whole brings me in 1
s
. 2
d
., or about 6
d
. clear. Added to this, I sell a 4 lb. cake, which costs me 3½
d
. per lb. 1
s
. 2
d
. the entire cake; and this in twenty-eight slices, at 1
d
. per slice, would yield 2
s
. 4
d
., or 1
s
. 2
d
. clear; so that altogether my clear gains would be 4
s
. 4
d
. upon an expenditure of 2
s
. 2
d
. – say 200 per cent.’

This is said to be about the usual profit of the trade. Sometimes they give credit. One person assured me he trusted as much as 9½
d
. that morning, and out of that he was satisfied there was 4
d
., at least, he should never see. Most of the stalls are stationary, but some are locomotive. Some cans are carried about with yokes, like milk-cans, the mugs being kept in a
basket. The best district for the night-trade is the City, and the approaches to the bridges. There are more men and women, I was told, walking along Cheapside, Aldersgate-street, Bishopsgate-street, and Fleet-street. In the latter place a good trade is frequently done between twelve at night and two in the morning. For the morning trade the best districts are the Strand, Oxford-street, City-road, New-road (from one end to the other), the markets, especially Covent Garden, Billingsgate, Newgate, and the Borough. There are no coffee-stalls in Smithfield. The reason is that the drovers, on arriving at the market, are generally tired and cold, and prefer sitting down to their coffee in a warm shop rather than drink it in the open street. The best days for coffee-stalls are market mornings, viz. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On these days the receipts are generally half as much again as those of the other mornings. The best time of the year for the business is the summer. This is, I am told, because the workpeople and costermongers have more money to spend. Some stall-keepers save sufficient to take a shop, but these are only such as have a ‘pitch’ in the best thoroughfares. One who did a little business informed me that he usually cleared, including Sunday, 14
s
. – last week his gains were 15
s
.; the week before that he could not remember. He is very frequently out all night, and does not earn sixpence. This is on wet and cold nights, when there are few people about. His is generally the night-trade. The average weekly earnings of the trade, throughout the year, are said to be 1
l
. The trade, I am assured by all, is overstocked. They are half too many, they say. ‘Two of us,’ to use their own words, ‘are eating one man’s bread.’ ‘When coffee in the streets first came up, a man could go and earn,’ I am told, ‘his 8
s
. a night at the very lowest; but now the same class of men cannot earn more than 3
s
.’ Some men may earn comparatively a large sum, as much as 38
s
. or 2
l
., but the generality of the trade cannot make more than 1
l
. per week, if so much. The following is the statement of one of the class: