For those not working in the mills and factories of towns and cities in the mid 19th century, a mid-day meal would have been taken on the go. The idea of going into a place just to eat was still relatively new. Eating-houses and pie shops were only just beginning to appear and many people would have bought their food from itinerant street traders walking the streets and selling their wares.
We have a detailed account of these people through an account of the labouring classes of London, and Bristol would probably have been little different in most respects. We do have an account, albeit brief, of one such street-seller in Bristol, Richard Hardwidge, Esq. Alias ‘Dicky-All-Hot, Hot’.
(Courtesy of Bristol Central Library)
We know of him only because he was enough of a character on the streets of Bristol that he was remembered in the local newspapers and through an elegy from, presumably, a regular customer.
In the 1840’s Henry Mayhew, a journalist and one of the founders of the magazine ‘Punch’, began a detailed description of the lives and customs of the working people of London. He went into considerable detail concerning the trades, habits, religion and domestic arrangements of the thousands of people working in London. Much of the material includes detailed interviews in which people candidly describe their lives and work.
He wrote at a time when street pie sellers were beginning to lose out to pie-shops, the forerunners of the classic eel-pie shops which became such a stereotype of working class London. Before this, pie-sellers carried their wares in deep tin boxes which were heated with charcoal underneath.
Charles Hindley in “A history of the Cried of London” notes that
“All large provincial towns have, from a time going back much farther than even the proverbial “oldest inhabitant” can recollect, had their old and favourite “Penny Pieman,” or, “Old-all-Hot!” as folks were ever wont to call him. He was generally a merry dog, and mostly to be found where merriment was going on, he scrupled not to force his way through the thickest of the crowd, knowing that the very centre of action was the best market for his wares.”
Hardwidge, according to his elegy and the description on his portrait sold pancakes or fritters rather than merely pies.
“FAREWELL, thou chattering chatter-box of fun,
Dickey! to thee and thine a long farewell :
Thy frying pancake-crying race is run,
Flat as a fritter in the grave to dwell.”
His portrait describes him as having, or working from, an ‘Eating Room’ in the Pithay. These Eating Rooms were an early form of Cafe and largely took over from the street sellers. A newspaper report on the consecration of St Bartholomew’s Church in Union Street mentions that one of the buildings it replaced was that…
“ wherein for so many years the well-known Bristol character, ‘‘ Dicky All Hot,” reigned and manipulated his ‘fritters’ and other edibles…”
(St Bartholomew’s is now long gone but was next to thee Odeon Cinema.)
According to his elegy Hardwidge began life as a coachman to a “highly-respectable family” in Weymouth. For some reason he gave up this life and became a street seller in Bristol. He seems to have become an easily recognisable figure dressed in “blue striped jerkin, apron, and sleeves so clean,” and a beaver cap or hat.
“Active and honest, thou wert then respected –
Full of humility and real good nature;”
Pies (ie traditional meat pies) were often sold for a penny, but Hardwidge seems to have sold his fritters and panacakes at four for a penny, presumably as they were less substantial. Fruit pies and pancakes were as popular at this time as were meat pies. Mayhew notes that the Costermongers of London much preferred fruit pies when in season. The other attraction, of course was the fact that these were sold hot hence the popular cry of “all hot, hot” and variations thereof.
Mayhew also reports that the sellers had ways of drumming up trade…
“One popular sales trick was to invite customers to toss a coin for a pie. If the pie man won the toss, he received a penny and the customer went without. If the customer was victorious, they received a pie for free. Known as ‘tossing the pie man’, it was a great ploy to get rid of stock.”
This practice also went on in Bristol, as the practice is mentioned in several newspaper reports of the time.
The street sellers would also have catered at fairs and markets, especially for those who couldn’t afford the fare om offer for the more well-to-do. A report of Bristol’s Harbour Regatta in 1839 notes..
“There was a splendid band on board, and refreshments of the most recherché description were provided. Neither, indeed, were the wants of those who were not fortunate enough to obtain places in the steam-packet left unprovided for; numerous booths, containing the usual tempting varieties, lined the banks of the river, and the cries of “all hot, all hot,” with the reports of soda water and ginger beer bottles, mingled with the shouts and laughter of the crowd, the ringing of the bells, tile music from the river, and the firing of canon.”
It isn’t known how Richard Hardwidge died exactly. The newspaper reports and his elegy simply mention a “severe affliction of 13 weeks”. The life must have agreed with him up to that point, for he had reached the age of 72 when he died.
“May 14, (1837) at his residence, in the parish of St. Augustine, Bristol, aged 72, Mr. Richard Hardwidge, after a severe affliction of thirteen weeks ; well known in that city as a flying pieman, or vendor of pancakes, under the soubriquet of “ Dicky All-Hot.”
As for the food he sold, the following is a recipe from Mary Holland’s “The economical cook and frugal housewife…” of 1837 that will give an idea of what was common at the time. Dicky wouldn’t have bothered with the wine boat…
“Apple Fritters.
Pare, core, and cut in round slices, some large apples . Take half a pint of ale and two eggs, and beat in as much flour as will make it rather thicker than a common pudding, with nutmeg and sugar to taste. Let it stand three or four minutes to rise. Dip the slices of apple in the batter, fry them crisp, and serve them up with sugar grated over, and wine sauce in a boat.”
References
- Henry, Mayhew
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Labour_and_the_London_Poor - Mayhew, Henry. London Labour and the London Poor, 1851
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.37797/page/51/mode/2up?q=pie - Hindley, Charles. A history of the Cries of London. Reeves and Turner. 2nd Ed 1884
- Hardwidge Richard -Elegy.
Braikenridge Collection, Bristol Central Library.-Vol. XV. Page: 337 - Hardwidge Richard -Portraits
Braikenridge Collection, Bristol Central Library -Vol. XV. Page: 333-5 - Consecration of St Batholomew’s Church, Union Street. Western Daily Press, 23rd January 1861
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/18610123/011/0003 - English Heritage. A history of the English pie
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/a-history-of-the-english-pie/ - Bristol Harbour Regatta. Bristol Mercury – Saturday 31 August 1839
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000034/18390831/012/0003 - Holland, Mary. The complete economical cook and frugal housewife : an entire new system of domestic cookery, containing approved directions for purchasing, preserving, and cooking … With directions for pastry and confectionary. Likewise the art of making British wines, brewing, baking, gardening, &c. 14th ed. 1837