 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF STREET PIEMEN.
The itinerant trade in pies is one of the most
ancient of the street callings of London. The
meat pies are made of beef or mutton; the fish
pies of eels; the fruit of apples, currants, goose-
berries, plums, damsons, cherries, raspberries,
or rhubarb, according to the season — and occa-
sionally of mince-meat. A few years ago the
street pie-trade was very profitable, but it has
been almost destroyed by the "pie-shops,"
and further, the few remaining street-dealers
say "the people now haven't the pennies to
spare." Summer fairs and races are the best
places for the piemen. In London the best times
are during any grand sight or holiday-making,
such as a review in Hyde-park, the Lord Mayor's
show, the opening of Parliament, Greenwich
fair, &c. Nearly all the men of this class, whom
I saw, were fond of speculating as to whether
the Great Exposition would be "any good" to
them, or not.
The London piemen, who may number about
forty in winter, and twice that number in sum-
mer, are seldom stationary. They go along with
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'ot! eel, beef, or mutton pies! Penny pies,
all 'ot — all 'ot!" The "can" has been
before described. The pies are kept hot by
means of a charcoal fire beneath, and there
is a partition in the body of the can to sepa-
rate the hot and cold pies. The "can" has
two tin drawers, one at the bottom, where the hot
pies are kept, and above these are the cold pies.
As fast as the hot dainties are sold, their place
is supplied by the cold from the upper drawer.
A teetotal pieman in Billingsgate has a pony
and "shay cart." His business is the most ex-
tensive in London. It is believed that he sells
20s. worth or 240 pies a day, but his brother
tradesmen sell no such amount. "I was out
last night," said one man to me, "from four in
the afternoon till half-past twelve. I went
from Somers-town to the Horse Guards, and
looked in at all the public-houses on my way,
and I didn't take above 1s. 6d. I have been
out sometimes from the beginning of the even-
ing till long past midnight, and haven't taken
more than 4d., and out of that I have to pay 1d.
for charcoal."
The pie-dealers usually make the pies them-
selves. The meat is bought in "pieces," of the
same part as the sausage-makers purchase —
the "stickings" — at about 3d. the pound.
"People, when I go into houses," said one
man, "often begin crying, `Mee-yow,' or `Bow-
wow-wow!' at me; but there's nothing of
that kind now. Meat, you see, is so cheap."
About five-dozen pies are generally made at a
time. These require a quartern of flour at 5d.
or 6d.; 2 lbs. of suet at 6d.; 1½ lb. meat at 3d.,
amounting in all to about 2s. To this must be
added 3d. for baking; 1d. for the cost of keep-
ing hot, and 2d. for pepper, salt, and eggs with
which to season and wash them over. Hence the
cost of the five dozen would be about 2s. 6d., and
the profit the same. The usual quantity of meat
in each pie is about half an ounce. There are
not more than 20 hot-piemen now in London.
There are some who carry pies about on a tray
slung before them; these are mostly boys, and,
including them, the number amounts to about
sixty all the year round, as I have stated.
The penny pie-shops, the street men say, have
done their trade a great deal of harm. These shops
have now got mostly all the custom, as they make
the pies much larger for the money than those
sold in the streets. The pies in Tottenham-
court-road are very highly seasoned. "I
bought one there the other day, and it nearly
took the skin off my mouth; it was full of
pepper," said a street-pieman, with consider-
able bitterness, to me. The reason why so
large a quantity of pepper is put in is, because
persons can't exactly tell the flavour of the
meat with it. Piemen generally are not very
particular about the flavour of the meat they
buy, as they can season it up into anything.
In the summer, a street pieman thinks he is
doing a good business if he takes 5s. per day,
and in the winter if he gets half that. On a
Saturday night, however, he generally takes 5s.
in the winter, and about 8s. in the summer.
At Greenwich fair he will take about 14s. At
a review in Hyde-park, if it is a good one,
he will sell about 10s. worth. The generality
of the customers are the boys of London. The
women seldom, if ever, buy pies in the streets.
At the public-houses a few pies are sold, and
the pieman makes a practice of "looking in"
at all the taverns on his way. Here his cus-
tomers are found principally in the tap-room.
"Here's all 'ot!" the pieman cries, as he
walks in; "toss or buy! up and win 'em!"
This is the only way that the pies can be got
rid of. "If it wasn't for tossing we shouldn't
sell one."
To "toss the pieman" is a favourite pastime
with costermongers' boys and all that class;
some of whom aspire to the repute of being
gourmands, and are critical on the quality of
the comestible. If the pieman win the toss,
he receives 1d. without giving a pie; if he lose,
he hands it over for nothing. The pieman
himself never "tosses," but always calls head
or tail to his customer. At the week's end it
comes to the same thing, they say, whether
they toss or not, or rather whether they win
or lose the toss: "I've taken as much as
2s. 6d. at tossing, which I shouldn't have had if
I had'nt done so. Very few people buy without
tossing, and the boys in particular. Gentlemen
`out on the spree' at the late public-houses will
frequently toss when they don't want the pies, and
when they win they will amuse themselves by
throwing the pies at one another, or at me.
Sometimes I have taken as much as half-a-
crown, and the people of whom I had the
money has never eaten a pie. The boys has
the greatest love of gambling, and they seldom,
if ever, buys without tossing." One of the
reasons why the street boys delight in tossing,
is, that they can often obtain a pie by such
means when they have only a halfpenny where-
with to gamble. If the lad wins he gets a
penny pie for his halfpenny.
For street mince-meat pies the pieman usually
makes 5lb. of mince-meat at a time, and for this
he will put in 2 doz. of apples, 1lb. of sugar,
1lb. of currants, 2lb. of "critlings" (critlings
being the refuse left after boiling down the
lard), a good bit of spice to give the critlings
a flavour, and plenty of treacle to make the
mince-meat look rich.
The "gravy" which used to be given with
the meat-pies was poured out of an oil-can,
and consisted of a little salt and water browned.
A hole was made with the little finger in the
top of the meat pie, and the "gravy" poured
in until the crust rose. With this gravy a per-
son in the line assured me that he has known
pies four days old to go off very freely, and be
pronounced excellent. The street piemen are
mostly bakers, who are unable to obtain em-
ployment at their trade. "I myself," said one,
"was a bread and biscuit baker. I have been
at the pie business now about two years and a
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my earnings were not more than 7s. all the
week through, and I was out till three in the
morning to get that." The piemen seldom
begin business till six o'clock, and some re-
main out all night. The best time for the sale
of pies is generally from ten at night to one in
the morning.
Calculating that there are only fifty street
piemen plying their trade in London, the year
through, and that their average earnings are
8s. a week, we find a street expenditure ex-
ceeding 3,000l., and a street consumption of
pies amounting nearly to three quarters of
a million yearly.
To start in the penny pie business of the
streets requires 1l. for a "can," 2s. 6d. for a
"turn-halfpenny" board to gamble with, 12s.
for a gross of tin pie-dishes, 8d. for an apron,
and about 6s. 6d. for stock money — allowing
1s. for flour, 1s. 3d. for meat, 2d. for apples,
4d. for eels, 2s. for pork flare or fat, 2d. for
sugar, ½d. for cloves, 1d. for pepper and salt,
1d. for an egg to wash the pies over with,
6d. for baking, and 1d. for charcoal to keep
the pies hot in the streets. Hence the capital
required would be about 2l. in all.
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |