University of Virginia Library

THE SUNDAY MORNING MARKETS.

Nearly every poor man's market does its Sun-
day trade. For a few hours on the Sabbath
morning, the noise, bustle, and scramble of the
Saturday night are repeated, and but for this
opportunity many a poor family would pass a
dinnerless Sunday. The system of paying the
mechanic late on the Saturday night — and more
particularly of paying a man his wages in a
public-house — when he is tired with his day's
work lures him to the tavern, and there the
hours fly quickly enough beside the warm tap-
room fire, so that by the time the wife comes
for her husband's wages, she finds a large
portion of them gone in drink, and the streets
half cleared, so that the Sunday market is the
only chance of getting the Sunday's dinner.

Of all these Sunday-morning markets, the
Brill, perhaps, furnishes the busiest scene; so
that it may be taken as a type of the whole.

The streets in the neighbourhood are quiet
and empty. The shops are closed with their
different-coloured shutters, and the people round
about are dressed in the shiney cloth of the
holiday suit. There are no "cabs," and but few
omnibuses to disturb the rest, and men walk in
the road as safely as on the footpath.

As you enter the Brill the market sounds are
scarcely heard. But at each step the low hum
grows gradually into the noisy shouting, until
at last the different cries become distinct, and
the hubbub, din, and confusion of a thousand
voices bellowing at once again fill the air.
The road and footpath are crowded, as on the
over-night; the men are standing in groups,
smoking and talking; whilst the women run

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to and fro, some with the white round turnips
showing out of their filled aprons, others with
cabbages under their arms, and a piece of red
meat dangling from their hands. Only a few of
the shops are closed, but the butcher's and the
coal-shed are filled with customers, and from
the door of the shut-up baker's, the women come
streaming forth with bags of flour in their hands,
while men sally from the halfpenny barber's
smoothing their clean-shaved chins. Walnuts,
blacking, apples, onions, braces, combs, turnips,
herrings, pens, and corn-plaster, are all bellowed
out at the same time. Labourers and mechanics,
still unshorn and undressed, hang about with
their hands in their pockets, some with their
pet terriers under their arms. The pavement is
green with the refuse leaves of vegetables, and
round a cabbage-barrow the women stand
turning over the bunches, as the-man shouts,
"Where you like, only a penny." Boys are
running home with the breakfast herring held
in a piece of paper, and the side-pocket of
the apple-man's stuff coat hangs down with
the weight of the halfpence stored within it.
Presently the tolling of the neighbouring church
bells breaks forth. Then the bustle doubles
itself, the cries grow louder, the confusion
greater. Women run about and push their way
through the throng, scolding the saunterers, for
in half an hour the market will close. In a
little time the butcher puts up his shutters, and
leaves the door still open; the policemen in their
clean gloves come round and drive the street-
sellers before them, and as the clock strikes
eleven the market finishes, and the Sunday's
rest begins.

The following is a list of the street-markets,
and the number of costers usually attending: —

MARKETS ON THE SURREY SIDE.

                     

New-cut, Lambeth	300
Lambeth-walk	104
Walworth-road	22
Camberwell	15
Newington	45
Kent-street, Borough	38
Bermondsey	107
Union-street, Borough	29
Great Suffolk-street	46
Blackfriars-road	58
	664

MARKETS ON THE MIDDLESEX SIDE.

                                                     

Brill and Chapel-st., Somers' Town	300
Camden Town	50
Hampstead-rd. and Tottenham-ct.-rd.	333
St. George's Market, Oxford-street	177
Marylebone	37
Edgeware-road	78
Crawford-street	145
Knightsbridge	46
Pimlico	32
Tothill-st. & Broad- way, Westminster	119
Drury-lane	22
Clare-street	139
Exmouth-street and Aylesbury-street, Clerken well	142
Leather-lane	150
St. John's-street	47
Old-street (St. Luke's) 46	Whitecross -street, Cripplegate #150
Islington	79
City-road	49
Shoreditch	100
Bethnal-green	100
Whitechapel	258
Mile End	105
Commercial-rd. (East)	114
Limehouse	88
Ratcliffe Highway	122
Rosemary-lane	119
	3137

We find, from the foregoing list of markets,
held in the various thoroughfares of the metro-
polis, that there are 10 on the Surrey side and
27 on the Middlesex side of the Thames. The
total number of hucksters attending these
markets is 3801, giving an average of 102 to
each market.