Overview

This is the story of the women, men, boys, and girls who hawked oysters, cherries, cabbages, and pies on London's streets, feeding the capital throughout its transformation from medieval city to global metropolis. Street Food reconstructs the working lives of these poor traders, following them from the back alleys and cramped rooms they called home, to the taverns, bridges, and corners where they set up shop. It describes fast-moving food chains, heaving markets, rumbling wheelbarrows, scruffy donkeys, rushing traffic, and advertising cries that echoed through the city. The first long-term, comprehensive history of street selling in London, the book explores the intricacies of hawkers' work and their profound social, economic, and cultural importance to metropolitan life between the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on the largest collection of archival and published evidence to date, it not only highlights the crucial roles street sellers played in fuelling the capital's expansion, but argues that their endurance over three centuries raises challenging questions about major narratives and processes of urban history, like modernization, the rise of retail, and the improvement of the streets. And it examines why the street food of the past-like the continuing vitality of street vendors around the world - is so different to the fashionable street food ubiquitous across London today.

Full Product Details

9780192846945

Table of Contents

Reviews

a tasty tour of how we used to eat... richly researched * Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times * an immensely vivid portrayal of a forgotten London, and a tribute to the hard lives and admirable independence and resilience of Londoners past. * Christopher Hart, Daily Mail * Accessible and enjoyable... makes for vibrant, engaging reading. It is a world reconstructed with real humanity and warmth For anyone interested in the economics of food or the capitals history, this is a fascinating book. * Olivia Potts, The Spectator * Highly enjoyable, well researched and full of details, Street Food is a must read for anyone with a hunger for Londons culinary history. * CM, All About History * engaging...a comprehensive narrative, debunking stereotypes and detailing everything from the tools of the hawkers' trade... to the famous cries of the street. * Charles Wright, OnLondon * a lively and engrossing book, full of fascinating historical facts and illustrations. * , Shiny New Books * Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London places street trading and markets in the context of a changing city with a diverse population that adapted frequently...it will be enjoyed by anyone who wants to learn more about London's history, its neighbourhoods and the role that markets and street food played both in the past and present. * Diane Cunningham, London Society * Street Food traces the history of London's street traders starting from the sixteenth century and bringing things bang up to date with the impact of the Covid-19 lockdowns. It takes us through the people involved, the food, the 'cries' which evolved into terms still in use and the challenges facing traders from housing to traffic, broken pavements, and their reputation...it will be enjoyed by anyone who wants to learn more about London's history, its neighbourhoods and the role that markets and street food played both in the past and present. * Diane Cunningham, London Society * Beautifully written and underpinned by impressive scholarship, Street Food exemplifies a new and distinctive style of history writing...This volume represents both an exemplar of what can be achieved, and a challenge to others. * Tim Hitchcock, London Journal * An entertaining, deeply researched history of hawking * John Gallagher, London Review of Books * Taverner excels at transporting us to the world he explores... this highly accomplished first book should be on the reading lists not only of historians of work, of food and drink and of London, but of any historian interested in processes of change and continuity in English society over the past 400 years. * Mark Hailwood, Urban History * Street Food should be of strong interest to family and community historians. Taverner writes well, as would be expected from a former journalist who has turned his hand to history. The volume strikes nicely the balance between academic rigour and readability and will look just as comfortable on a university reading-list as in a high-street bookshop. * Joe Saunders, Family & Community History *

a tasty tour of how we used to eat... richly researched * Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times * an immensely vivid portrayal of a forgotten London, and a tribute to the hard lives and admirable independence and resilience of Londoners past. * Christopher Hart, Daily Mail * Accessible and enjoyable... makes for vibrant, engaging reading. It is a world reconstructed with real humanity and warmth For anyone interested in the economics of food or the capitals history, this is a fascinating book. * Olivia Potts, The Spectator * Highly enjoyable, well researched and full of details, Street Food is a must read for anyone with a hunger for Londons culinary history. * CM, All About History * engaging...a comprehensive narrative, debunking stereotypes and detailing everything from the tools of the hawkers' trade... to the famous cries of the street. * Charles Wright, OnLondon *

a tasty tour of how we used to eat... richly researched * Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times *

a tasty tour of how we used to eat... richly researched * Bee Wilson, The Sunday Times * an immensely vivid portrayal of a forgotten London, and a tribute to the hard lives and admirable independence and resilience of Londoners past. * Christopher Hart, Daily Mail * Accessible and enjoyable... makes for vibrant, engaging reading. It is a world reconstructed with real humanity and warmth For anyone interested in the economics of food or the capitals history, this is a fascinating book. * Olivia Potts, The Spectator * Highly enjoyable, well researched and full of details, Street Food is a must read for anyone with a hunger for Londons culinary history. * CM, All About History * engaging...a comprehensive narrative, debunking stereotypes and detailing everything from the tools of the hawkers' trade... to the famous cries of the street. * Charles Wright, OnLondon * a lively and engrossing book, full of fascinating historical facts and illustrations. * , Shiny New Books * Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London places street trading and markets in the context of a changing city with a diverse population that adapted frequently...it will be enjoyed by anyone who wants to learn more about London's history, its neighbourhoods and the role that markets and street food played both in the past and present. * Diane Cunningham, London Society *

Author Information

Charlie Taverner is a social historian of food and cities. After receiving a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London, he held an Economic History Society postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Historical Research. He is currently a research fellow on the ERC-funded FoodCult project, based at Trinity College Dublin. His research has appeared in journals such as History Workshop and Urban History. Previously, Charlie worked as a business and agricultural journalist, starting out on the staff of the magazine Farmers Weekly.

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