No. 199: Paternoster Square, EC4
Paternoster Square, London, EC4. Photo © Roger Dean 2010
London Labour and the London Poor – Henry Mayhew, 1851:
A brief account of the cries once prevalent among the street-sellers will show somewhat significantly the change in the diet or regale ments of those who purchase their food in the street. Some of the articles are not vended in the public thoroughfares now, while others are still sold, but in different forms.
“Hot sheep’s feet,” for instance, were cried in the streets in the time of Henry V.; they are now sold cold, at the doors of the lower-priced theatres, and at the larger public-houses.
[ The above photograph is of Elizabeth Frink’s sculpture Paternoster which stands in Paternoster Square and was unveiled by Yehudi Menuhin in 1975. R.D.]
I have been reading Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor and am excited by how good it is. Food is only part of it. He speaks specifically of the London neighborhoods, who lives there, what they sell. My comments: http://silverseason.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/london-labour-and-the-london-poor/
Hello Silver, and welcome. Yes, Mayhew is wonderful and an incredible, if you think about it, resource. How easily we could have not had his book! Your blog is really interesting; really enjoyable and elucidating discussions of Wolf Hall. It’s on the list, and your remarks about the English Bible, and the mythmaking around both More and Cromwell, are really interesting. Thanks!