 | OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 |  |
OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF HOT-CROSS
BUNS, AND OF CHELSEA BUNS.
Perhaps no cry — though it is only for one
morning — is more familiar to the ears of a
Londoner, than that of "One-a-penny, two-a-
penny, hot-cross buns," on Good Friday. The
sale is unknown in the Irish capital; for among
Roman Catholics, Good Friday, I need hardly
say, is a strict fast, and the eggs in the buns
prevent their being used. One London gentle-
man, who spoke of fifty years ago, told me
that the street-bun-sellers used to have a not
unpleasing distich. On reflection, however,
my informant could not be certain whether he
had heard this distich cried, or had remem-
bered hearing the elders of his family speak of
it as having been cried, or how it was impressed
upon his memory. It seems hardly in accord-
ance with the usual style of street poetry: —
If your daughters will not eat them, give them to your sons.
But if you hav'n't any of those pretty little elves,
You cannot then do better than eat them all your- selves."
A tradesman who had resided more than
fifty years in the Borough had, in his boyhood,
heard, but not often, this ridiculous cry: —
One-a-penny; two-a-penny, hot-cross buns."
The sellers of the Good Friday buns are
principally boys, and they are of mixed classes
— costers' boys, boys habitually and boys occa-
sionally street-sellers, and boys street-sellers for
that occasion only. One great inducement to
embark in the trade is the hope of raising a
little money for the Greenwich Fair of the fol-
lowing Monday.
I am informed that 500 persons are employed
on Good Friday in the streets of London in the
sale of hot-cross buns, each itinerant selling
upon the day's average six dozen halfpenny,
and seven dozen penny buns, for which he will
take 12s. 6d. (his profits being 3d. in the shilling
or 3s. 1½d.). One person informed me that last
Good Friday he had sold during the day forty
dozen penny buns, for which he received 50s.
The bun-selling itinerants derive their sup-
plies principally from the wholesale pastry-
cooks, and, in a less degree, from the small
bakers and pastrycooks, who work more for
"the trade" than themselves. The street hot-
cross bun trade is less than it was seven or eight
[Description: 915EAF. Page 202.]
more freely, and send round for orders: so that
the itinerants complain that they have lost many
a good customer. One informant (a master pastry-
cook, who had been in the business nearly fifty
years) said to me: "Times are sadly altered to
what they were when I was a boy. Why I have
known my master to bake five sacks of flour in
nothing but hot-cross buns, and that is sufficient
for 20,000 buns" (one sack of flour being used
for 4,000 buns, or 500 lbs. of raw material to
the same quantity of buns). The itinerants
carry their baskets slung on their arm, or borne
upon the head. A flannel or green baize is
placed at the bottom of the basket and brought
over the buns, after which a white cloth is spread
over the top of the baize, to give it a clean ap-
pearance.
A vendor of "hot-cross buns" has to provide
himself with a basket, a flannel (to keep the
buns warm), and a cloth, to give a clean appear-
ance to his commodities. These articles, if
bought for the purpose, cost — basket, 2s. 6d.;
flannel and cloth, 2s.; stock-money, average, 5s.
(largest amount 15s., smallest 2s. 6d.); or about
10s. in all.
There is expended in one day, in hot-cross
buns purchased in the London streets, 300l., and
nearly 100,000 buns thus bought.
The Chelsea buns are now altogether super-
seded by the Bath and Alexander's buns. "Peo-
ple," the street-sellers say, "want so much for
their money." There are now but two Chelsea
bun-houses; the one at Pimlico, and the other
at Chelsea. The principal times Chelsea buns
were sold in the streets was Good Friday,
Easter, and Whitsuntide; and, with the excep-
tion of Good Friday, the great sales were at
Greenwich Fair, and then they were sold with
other cakes and sweetmeats. I am informed
that twenty years ago there was one man, with a
rich musical voice, who sold these buns, about
Westminster principally, all the year round; his
cry — which was one of the musical ones — was,
"One a penny, two a penny, hot Chelsea buns!
Burning hot! smoking hot! r-r-r-reeking hot!
hot Chelsea buns!"
| OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1 | |