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 1/2_d._ per half-mug, for coffee, tea, or cocoa;
and 1/2_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 3-1/2_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 5-1/2_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.
[Illustration: THE LONDON COFFEE-STALL.
[_From a Daguerreotype by_ BEARD.]]
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._ 0-1/2_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 1-1/2 lb. of sugar, at 3-1/2_d._ per lb., there is some
at 3_d._ This would come to 2_s._ 2-3/4_d._; and, allowing 1-1/4_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 1-1/2_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 1/2_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 3-1/2_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 9-1/2_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:--
“I was a mason’s labourer, a smith’s labourer, a plasterer’s labourer,
or a bricklayer’s labourer. I was, indeed, a labouring man. I could not
get employment. I was for six months without any employment. I did not
know which way to support my wife and child (I have only one child).
Being so long out of employment, I saw no other means of getting a
living but out of the streets. I was almost starving before I took to
it--that I certainly was. I’m not ashamed of telling anybody that,
because it’s true, and I sought for a livelihood wherever I could. Many
said they wouldn’t do such a thing as keep a coffee-stall, but I said
I’d do anything to get a bit of bread honestly. Years ago, when I was
a boy, I used to go out selling water-cresses, and apples, oranges,
and radishes, with a barrow, for my landlord; so I thought, when I
was thrown out of employment, I would take to selling coffee in the
streets. I went to a tinman, and paid him 10_s._ 6_d._ (the last of my
savings, after I’d been four or five months out of work) for a can,
I didn’t care how I got my living so long as I could turn an honest
penny. Well; I went on, and knocked about, and couldn’t get a pitch
anywhere; but at last I heard that an old man, who had been in the
habit of standing for many years at the entrance of one of the markets,
had fell ill; so, what did I do, but I goes and pops into his pitch,
and there I’ve done better than ever I did afore. I get 20_s._ now
where I got 10_s._ one time; and if I only had such a thing as 5_l._
or 10_l._, I might get a good living for life. I cannot do half as much
as the man that was there before me. He used to make his coffee down
there, and had a can for hot water as well; but I have but one can to
keep coffee and all in; and I have to borrow my barrow, and pay 1_s._
a week for it. If I sell my can out, I can’t do any more. The struggle
to get a living is so great, that, what with one and another in the
coffee-trade, it’s only those as can get good ‘pitches’ that can get a
crust at it.”
As it appears that each coffee-stall keeper on an average, clears 1_l._
a week, and his takings may be said to be at least double that sum, the
yearly street expenditure for tea, coffee, &c., amounts to 31,200_l._
The quantity of coffee sold annually in the streets, appears to be
about 550,000 gallons.
To commence as a coffee-stall keeper in a moderate manner requires
about 5_l._ capital. The truck costs 2_l._, and the other utensils and
materials 3_l._ The expense of the cans is near upon 16_s._ each. The
stock-money is a few shillings.
OF THE STREET SALE OF GINGER-BEER, SHERBET, LEMONADE, &C.
The street-trade in ginger-beer--now a very considerable traffic--was
not known to any extent until about thirty years ago. About that
time (1822) a man, during a most sultry drought, sold extraordinary
quantities of “cool ginger-beer” and of “soda-powders,” near the Royal
Exchange, clearing, for the three or four weeks the heat continued,
30_s._ a day, or 9_l._ weekly. Soda-water he sold “in powders,” the
acid and the alkali being mixed in the water of the glass held by the
customer, and drunk whilst effervescing. His prices were 2_d._ and
3_d._ a glass for ginger-beer; and 3_d._ and 4_d._ for soda-water,
“according to the quality;” though there was in reality no difference
whatever in the quality--only in the price. From that time, the numbers
pursuing this street avocation increased gradually; they have however
fallen off of late years.
The street-sellers who “brew their own beer” generally prepare half
a gross (six dozen) at a time. For a “good quality” or the “penny
bottle” trade, the following are the ingredients and the mode of
preparation:--3 gallons of water; 1 lb. of ginger, 6_d._; lemon-acid,
2_d._; essence of cloves, 2_d._; yeast, 2_d._; and 1 lb. of raw sugar,
7_d._ This admixture, the yeast being the last ingredient introduced,
stands 24 hours, and is then ready for bottling. If the beverage
be required in 12 hours, double the quantity of yeast is used. The
bottles are filled only “to the ridge,” but the liquid and the froth
more than fill a full-sized half-pint glass. “Only half froth,” I was
told, “is reckoned very fair, and it’s just the same in the shops.”
Thus, 72 bottles, each to be sold at 1_d._, cost--apart from any
outlay in utensils, or any consideration of the value of labour--only
1_s._ 7_d._, and yield, at 1_d._ per bottle, 6_s._ For the cheaper
beverage--called “playhouse ginger-beer” in the trade--instead of
sugar, molasses from the “private distilleries” is made available.
The “private” distilleries are the illicit ones: “‘Jiggers,’ we call
them,” said one man; “and I could pass 100 in 10 minutes’ walk from
where we’re talking.” Molasses, costing 3_d._ at a jigger’s, is
sufficient for a half-gross of bottles of ginger-beer; and of the other
ingredients only half the quantity is used, the cloves being altogether
dispensed with, but the same amount of yeast is generally applied. This
quality of “beer” is sold at 1/2_d._ the glass.
About five years ago “fountains” for the production of ginger-beer
became common in the streets. The ginger-beer trade in the open air
is only for a summer season, extending from four to seven months,
according to the weather, the season last year having been over in
about four months. There were then 200 fountains in the streets,
all of which, excepting 20 or 30 of the best, were hired of the
ginger-beer manufacturers, who drive a profitable trade in them. The
average value of a street-fountain, with a handsome frame or stand,
which is usually fixed on a wheeled and movable truck, so as one man’s
strength may be sufficient to propel it, is 7_l._; and, for the rent
of such a fountain, 6_s._ a week is paid when the season is brisk,
and 4_s._ when it is slack; but last summer, I am told, 4_s._ 6_d._
was an average. The largest and handsomest ginger-beer fountain in
London was--I speak of last summer--in use at the East-end, usually
standing in Petticoat-lane, and is the property of a dancing-master.
It is made of mahogany, and presents somewhat the form of an upright
piano on wheels. It has two pumps, and the brass of the pump-handles
and the glass receivers is always kept bright and clean, so that the
whole glitters handsomely to the light. Two persons “serve” at this
fountain; and on a fine Sunday morning, from six to one, that being
the best trading time, they take 7_l._ or 8_l._ in halfpennies--for
“the beer” is 1/2_d._ a glass--and 2_l._ each other day of the week.
This machine, as it may be called, is drawn by two ponies, said to be
worth 10_l._ a-piece; and the whole cost is pronounced--perhaps with a
sufficient exaggeration--to have been 150_l._ There were, in the same
neighbourhood, two more fountains on a similar scale, but commoner,
each drawn by only one pony instead of the aristocratic “pair.”
The ingredients required to feed the “ginger-beer” fountains are of a
very cheap description. To supply 10 gallons, 2 quarts of lime-juice
(as it is called, but it is, in reality, lemon-juice), costing 3_s._
6_d._, are placed in the recess, sometimes with the addition of a pound
of sugar (4_d._); while some, I am assured, put in a smaller quantity
of juice, and add two-pennyworth of oil of vitriol, which “brings out
the sharpness of the lime-juice.” The rest is water. No process of
brewing or fermentation is necessary, for the fixed air pumped into
the liquid as it is drawn from the fountain, communicates a sufficient
briskness or effervescence. “The harder you pumps,” said one man who
had worked a fountain, “the frothier it comes; and though it seems
to fill a big glass--and the glass an’t so big for holding as it
looks--let it settle, and there’s only a quarter of a pint.” The hirer
of a fountain is required to give security. This is not, as in some
slop-trades, a deposit of money; but a householder must, by written
agreement, make himself responsible for any damage the fountain may
sustain, as well as for its return, or make good the loss: the street
ginger-beer seller is alone responsible for the rent of the machine.
It is however, only men that are known, who are trusted in this
way. Of the fountains thus hired, 50 are usually to be found at the
neighbouring fairs and races. As the ginger-beer men carry lime-juice,
&c., with them, only water is required to complete the “brewing of the
beer” and so conveyance is not difficult.
There is another kind of “ginger-beer,” or rather of “small acid tiff,”
which is sold out of barrels at street-stalls at 1/2_d._ the glass. To
make 2-1/2 gallons of this, there is used 1/2lb. tartaric, or other
acid, 1_s._; 1/2 lb. alkali (soda), 10_d._; 1/2 lb. lump sugar, bruised
fine, 4_d._; and yeast 1_d._ Of these “barrel-men” there are now about
one hundred.
Another class of street-sellers obtain their stock of ginger-beer
from the manufacturers. One of the largest manufacturers for the
street-trade resides near Ratcliffe-highway, and another in the
Commercial-road. The charge by the wholesale traders is 8_d._ the
doz., while to a known man, or for ready money, 13 are given to the
dozen. The beer, however, is often let out on credit--or in some cases
security is given in the same way as for the fountains--and the empty
bottles must be duly returned. It is not uncommon for two gross of
beer to be let out in this way at a time. For the itinerant trade
these are placed on a truck or barrow, fitted up with four shelves,
on which are ranged the bottles. These barrows are hired in the same
way as the costers’ barrows. Some sell their beer at stalls fitted up
exclusively for the trade, a kind of tank being let into the centre of
the board and filled with water, in which the glasses are rinsed or
washed. Underneath the stall there is usually a reserve of the beer,
and a keg containing water. Some of the best frequented stalls were
in Whitechapel, Old-street-road, City-road, Tottenham-court-road, the
New-cut, Elephant and Castle, the Commercial-road, Tower-hill, the
Strand, and near Westminster-bridge.
The stationary beer business is, for the most part, carried on in the
more public streets, such as Holborn and Oxford-street, and in the
markets of Covent-garden, Smithfield, and Billingsgate; while the
peripatetic trade, which is briskest on the Sundays--when, indeed, some
of the stationary hands become itinerant--is more for the suburbs;
Victoria-park, Battersea-fields, Hampstead-heath, Primrose-hill,
Kennington-common, and Camberwell-green, being approved Sunday haunts.
The London street-sellers of ginger-beer, say the more experienced, may
be computed at 3,000--of whom about one-third are women. I heard them
frequently estimated at 5,000, and some urged that the number was at
least as near 5,000 as 3,000. For my own part I am inclined to believe
that half the smaller number would be nearer the truth. Judging by the
number of miles of streets throughout the metropolis, and comparing
the street-sellers of ginger-beer with the fruit-stall keepers, I am
satisfied that in estimating the ginger-beer-sellers at 1,500 we are
rather over than under the truth. This body of street-sellers were more
numerous five years back by 15 or 20 per cent., but the introduction of
the street fountains, and the trade being resorted to by the keepers
of coal-sheds and the small shopkeepers--who have frequently a stand
with ginger-beer in front of their shops--have reduced the amount of
the street-sellers. In 1842, there were 1,200 ginger-beer sellers in
the streets who had attached to their stalls or trucks labels, showing
that they were members--or assumed to be members--of the Society of Odd
Fellows. This was done in hopes of a greater amount of custom from the
other members of the Society, but the expectation was not realised--and
so the Odd Fellowship of the ginger-beer people disappeared. Of the
street-traders 200 work fountains; and of the remaining portion the
stationary and the itinerant are about equally divided. Of the whole
number, however, not above an eighth confine themselves to the trade,
but usually sell with their “pop” some other article of open-air
traffic--fruit, sweet-stuff, or shell-fish. There are of the entire
number about 350, who, whenever the weather permits, stay out all night
with their stands or barrows, and are to be found especially in all the
approaches to Covent-garden, and the other markets to which there is a
resort during the night or at day-break. These men, I was told by one
of their body, worked from eight in the evening to eight or ten next
morning, then went to bed, rose at three, and “plenty of ’em then goes
to the skittles or to get drunk.”
The character of the ginger-beer-sellers does not differ from what
I have described as pertaining to the costermonger class, and to
street-traders generally. There is the same admixture of the reduced
mechanic, the broken-down gentleman’s servant, the man of any class in
life who cannot brook the confinement and restraint of ordinary in-door
labour, and of the man “brought up to the streets.” One experienced
and trustworthy man told me that from his own knowledge he could
count up twenty “classical men,” as he styled them, who were in the
street ginger-beer-trade, and of these four had been, or were said to
have been “parsons,” two being of the same name (Mr. S ----); but my
informant did not know if they stood in any degree of consanguinity
one to another. The women are the wives, daughters, or other
connections of the men.
Some of the stalls at which ginger-beer is sold--and it is the same
at the coal-sheds and the chandlers’ shops--are adorned pictorially.
Erected at the end of a stall is often a painting, papered on a
board, in which a gentleman, with the bluest of coats, the whitest of
trousers, the yellowest of waistcoats, and the largest of guard-chains
or eye-glasses, is handing a glass of ginger-beer, frothed up like a
pot of stout, and containing, apparently, a pint and a half, to some
lady in flowing white robes, or gorgeous in purple or orange.
To commence in this branch of the street business requires, in all
18_s._ 3_d._: six glasses, 2_s._ 9_d._; board, 5_s._; tank, 1_s._; keg,
1_s._; gross of beer, 8_s._ (this is where the seller is not also the
maker); and for towels, &c., 6_d._; if however the street-seller brew
his own beer, he will require half a gross of bottles, 5_s._ 6_d._; and
the ingredients I have enumerated, 1_s._ 7_d._
In addition to the street-sale of ginger-beer is that of other
summer-drinks. Of these, the principal is lemonade, the consumption
of which is as much as that of all the others together. Indeed, the
high-sounding names given to some of these beverages--such as “Nectar”
and “Persian Sherbet”--are but other names for lemonade, in a slightly
different colour or fashion.
Lemonade is made, by those vendors who deal in the best articles,
after the following method: 1 lb. of carbonate of soda, 6_d._; 1 lb.
of tartaric acid, 1_s._ 4_d._ (“at least,” said an informant, “_I_
pay 1_s._ 4_d._ at ’Pothecaries Hall, but it can be had at 1_s._”); 1
lb. of loaf-sugar, 5-1/2_d._; essence of lemon, 3_d._ This admixture
is kept, in the form of a powder, in a jar, and water is drawn from
what the street-sellers call a “stone-barrel”--which is a stone jar,
something like the common-shaped filters, with a tap--and a larger
or smaller spoonful of the admixture in a glass of water supplies
an effervescing draught for 1_d._ or 1/2_d._ “There’s sometimes
shocking roguishness in the trade,” said one man, “and there is in
a many trades--some uses vitriol!” Lemonade, made after the recipe
I have given, is sometimes bottled by the street-sellers, and sold
in the same way as ginger-beer. It is bought, also, for street sale
of the ginger-beer manufacturers--the profit being the same--but
so bought to less than a twentieth of the whole sale. The water in
the stone barrel is spring-water, obtained from the nearest pump,
and in hot weather obtained frequently, so as to be “served” in as
cool a state as possible. Sometimes lemonade powders are used; they
are bought at a chemist’s, at 1_s._ 6_d._ the pound. “Sherbet” is
the same admixture, with cream of tartar instead of tartaric acid.
“Raspberry” has, sometimes, the addition of a few crusted raspberries,
and a colouring of cochineal, with, generally, a greater degree of
sweetening than lemonade. “If cochineal is used for colouring,” said
one man, “it sometimes turns brown in the sun, and the rasberry don’t
sell. A little lake’s better.” “Lemon-juice” is again lemonade, with a
slight infusion of saffron to give it a yellow or pale orange colour.
“Nectar,” in imitation of Soyer’s, has more sugar and less acid than
the lemonade; spices, such as cinnamon, is used to flavour it, and the
colouring is from lake and saffron.
These “cooling drinks” are sold from the powder or the jar, as I have
described, from fountains, and from bottles. The fountain sale is not
above a tenth of the whole. All is sold in 1/2_d._ and 1_d._ glasses,
except the nectar, which is never less than 1_d._ The customers are
the same as those who buy ginger-beer; but one “lemonader” with
whom I conversed, seemed inclined to insist that they were a “more
respectabler class.” Boys are good customers--better, perhaps, than for
the beer,--as “the colour and the fine names attracts them.”
The “cooling drink” season, like that of the ginger-beer, is determined
by the weather, and last summer it was only four months. It was
computed for me that there were 200 persons, chiefly men, selling
solely lemonade, &c., and an additional 300 uniting the sale with that
of ginger-beer. One man, whose statement was confirmed by others, told
me that on fine days he took 3_s._ 6_d._, out of which he cleared 2_s._
to 2_s._ 6_d._; and he concluded that his brother tradesmen cleared as
much every fine day, and so, allowing for wet weather and diminished
receipts, made 10_s._ a week. The receipts, then, for this street
luxury--a receipt of 17_s._ 6_d._ affording a profit of 10_s._--show a
street expenditure in such a summer as the last, of 2,800_l._, by those
who do not unite ginger-beer with the trade. Calculating that those who
do unite ginger-beer with it sell only one-half as much as the others,
we find a total outlay of 4,900_l._ One of the best trades is in the
hands of a man who “works” Smithfield, and on the market days clears
generally from 6_s._ to 9_s._
The stalls, &c., are of the same character as those of the ginger-beer
sellers. The capital required to start is:--stone barrel, with brass
tap, 5_s._ 6_d._; stand and trestle, 6_s._; 6 tumbler glasses, 2_s._
3_d._; 2 towels, 6_d._; stock money, 2_s._ 6_d._; jar, 2_s._; 12
bottles (when used), 3_s._ 6_d._; in all, about a guinea.