 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF COFFEE-STALL KEEPERS.
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 any-
thing like their present number, which is said to
be upwards of 300 — the majority of the pro-
prietors 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 1s. to 6d. 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 4d., from British possessions, and from foreign
countries at 6d.
But it was not owing solely to the reduced
price of coffee, that the street-vendors of it in-
creased 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 tempta-
tion 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
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chicory is not chargeable with duty, and is now
cultivated, I am assured, to the yield of be-
tween 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-venders, than among "respecta-
ble" 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 sup-
posed to be at the corner of Duke-street, Oxford-
street. The proprietor of that stall is said to
take full 30s. of a morning, in halfpence. One
stall-keeper, I was informed, when "upon the
drink" thinks nothing of spending his 10l. or
15l. in a week. A party assured me that once,
when the stall-keeper above mentioned was away
"on the spree," he took up his stand there, and
got from 4s. to 5s. 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 tres-
sel and board. On the top of this are placed two
or three, and sometimes four, large tin cans, hold-
ing upon an average five gallons each. Beneath
each of these cans is a small iron fire-pot, per-
forated like a rushlight shade, and here char-
coal is continually burning, so as to keep the
coffee or tea, 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 engrav-
ing 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
tin, mounted with brass-plates. There are
compartments for bread and butter, sand-
wiches, 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 tar-
paulin, 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 appear-
ance 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 with-
out 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 1d. per mug, or ½d. per half-mug, for
coffee, tea, or cocoa; and ½d. a slice the bread
and butter or cake. The ham sandwiches are
2d. (or 1d.) each, the boiled eggs 1d., 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 quan-
tities. The coffee is usually bought in the
berry, and ground by themselves. All pur-
chase chicory to mix with it. For the coffee
they pay about 1s.; for the tea about 3s.; for
the cocoa 6d. per lb.; and for the sugar 3½d.
to 4d. For the chicory the price is 6d. (which is
the amount of the duty alone on foreign chico-
ry), 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 cur-
rants, half a pound of sugar, six ounces of
beef dripping, and a quartern of flour. The
ham for sandwiches costs 5½d. or 6d. per lb.;
and when boiled produces in sandwiches about
2s. per lb. It is usually cut up in slices little
thicker than paper. The bread is usually "second
bread;" the butter, salt, at about 8d. the pound.
Some borrow their barrows, and pay 1s. a week
for the hire of them. Many borrow the capital
upon which they trade, frequently of their land-
lord. 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
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[Description: 915EAF. Page 185.]
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 in-
formed, 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, police-
men, 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 ob-
taining work at their own trade. The gene-
rality 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, 1s. 0½d. With this I
should make five gallons of coffee, such as I
sell in the street, which would require 3 quarts
of milk, at 3d. per quart, and 1½lb. of sugar, at
3½d. per lb., there is some at 3d. This would
come to 2s. 2¾d.; and, allowing 1¼d. for a
quarter of a peck of charcoal to keep the coffee
hot, it would give 2s. 4d. for the cost of five
gallons of coffee. This I should sell out at about
1½d. per pint; so that the five gallons would
produce me 5s., or 2s. 8d. clear. I generally
get rid of one quartern loaf and 6 oz. of
butter with this quantity of coffee, and for
this I pay 5d. the loaf and 3d. the butter,
making 8d.; and these I make into twenty-eight
slices at ½d. per slice; so the whole brings me
in 1s. 2d., or about 6d. clear. Added to this,
I sell a 4 lb. cake, which costs me 3½d. per lb.
1s. 2d. the entire cake; and this in twenty-
eight slices, at 1d. per slice, would yield 2s. 4d.,
or 1s. 2d. clear; so that altogether my clear
gains would be 4s. 4d. upon an expenditure of
2s. 2d. — say 200 per cent."
This is said to be about the usual profit of the
trade. Sometimes they give credit. One per-
son assured me he trusted as much as 9½d. that
morning, and out of that he was satisfied there
was 4d., 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, Bishops-
gate-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, espe-
cially 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 gene-
rally 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, 14s. —
last week his gains were 15s.; 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 gene-
rally the night-trade. The average weekly
earnings of the trade, throughout the year, are
said to be 1l. 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 8s. a night at the
very lowest; but now the same class of men
cannot earn more than 3s." Some men may
earn comparatively a large sum, as much as
38s. or 2l., but the generality of the trade can-
not make more than 1l. 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 sup-
port 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 any-
body 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
10s. 6d. (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 20s. now where I got 10s. one time; and
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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 1s. 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 an-
other 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 1l. a week, and his
takings may be said to be at least double that
sum, the yearly street expenditure for tea, cof-
fee, &c., amounts to 31,200l. 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 5l. capital.
The truck costs 2l., and the other utensils and
materials 3l. The expense of the cans is near
upon 16s. each. The stock-money is a few
shillings.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |