Time and space in a dish: examining the relationship between materiality and space in the early modern saloop stall

ABSTRACT

Walking in the early morning in London in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries you would have come across a new consumption space, the saloop stall. These stalls operated for only a few hours before being packed away. Yet in their time they offered to labouring Londoners, its watchmen and chimney sweeps, a warm respite. Taking a microhistorical approach, this paper provides the first critical examination of these spaces. It looks to establish the temporality of these stalls and how they were situated in the broader urban routines. It also analyses the role materiality played in establishing these spatialities. This paper looks to reframe the stall’s ceramic cups and hot tea urns, demonstrating how they were crucial to creating a space of labour and sociability, removed from the domestic context they have often been associated with. This research is approached via a wide range of sources such as contemporary literature, visual culture and court testimonies. Consideration is given to material and sensorial attributes; factors that inform the creation and use of this space at every turn. It hopes to provide an example of the value taking a material and sensory-based approach when researching itinerant street traders.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban
• spatiality
• ephemeral
• street vendors

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on my MA thesis at the V&A/RCA History of Design, My thanks go to my tutors, the academics at MOLA and archivists the LMA who were so generous with their knowledge as well to the reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Particular thanks go to Alyssa Myers and my tutor Caroline McCaffery-Howarth for their wonderful support and insight.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Z, “The Cockney School of Poetry.”

2 Thomas, Treaties, Agreements, and Engagements … , 842, 874 and Peachi, Some Observations Made upon … .

3 This paper has a specifically British focus, however salep continues to be enjoyed in many areas, such as Turkey, where it is often called salep or sahlab.

4 Bryant, Flora Diaetetica, 38–9 among others.

5 Methodist Magazine, “The Works of God Displayed,” 38–9.

6 Nott, The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary and Smith, The Compleat Housewife, 169.

7 Bickham, “Eating the Empire,” 64, 233.

8 Kettilby, A Collection of Above … , 77–8.

9 Voth, “Time and Work in Eighteenth-Century London,” 24.

10 Clarence-Smith, “The Global Consumption of Hot Beverages,” 37–56.

11 Thirsk, Food in Early Modern England, 308.

12 Langbein, The Origins of Adversary, 185.

13 Trentmann, Empire of Things, 79 and Withington, “Where Was the Coffee,” 74.

14 Schatzki, “Timespace and the Organization,” 36–9.

15 OBP, September 1804, George Freak, John Richardson (t18040912-56).

16 Stobart, “Leisure and Shopping in the … ” 481. See also Borsay, “The English Urban Renaissance,” 581–603.

17 Tierney, “Dirty Rotten Sheds,” 235.

18 Jones, “Redressing Reform Narratives,” 62.

19 Kelley, Cheap Street, 51.

20 Pennell, “Great Quantities of Gooseberry Pye,” 235.

21 OBP, June 1785, Thomas Hanvy, (t17850629-114).

22 OBP, July 1783, William William Law, (t17830723-122). Of the other cases, two identified selling alongside doing other work or at certain points of the day, and the remaining two were family members assisting relatives who were primarily identified as saloop sellers.

23 Ibid and OBP, May 1795, Joseph Samuel, (t17950520-42).

24 Of the various prints of stall holders, I examined only one depicted a male vendor in Smith, John Thomas, The Cries of London, plate 28.

25 OBP, Samuel, (t17950520-42).

26 Voth, “Time and Work in Eighteenth-Century London,” 10.

27 OBP, October 1789, William Cunningham, (t17891028-18).

28 A small portion of the cases detail taking saloop late at night as part of drinking such as OBP, September 1785, John Berrow, (t17850914-179).

29 OBP Freak, Richardson (t18040912-56) and similarly the Waterman William Gardner describes taking a morning dish of saloop in OBP, June 1810, Elizabeth Durant, Mary Kite, Elizabeth Ellis (t18100606-70).

30 Pennell, “Great Quantities of Gooseberry Pye,” 230–5.

31 Aleph. “City Scraps,” 3.

32 “The Humbler Employments of London,” 212–13.

33 Cases were compared to John Rocque, A Plan of the Cities of London …  and Horwood, Plan of the Cities of London …  respectively and can be found mapped on Layers of London under the data set Saloop Sellers of London.

34 Porter, London, 164–6, 171; OBP, September 1768, William Dixon (t17680907-29); OBP, December 1802, David Milton, John Cossey, (t18021201-98); OBP, September 1784, Henry Morgan, (t17840915-1); OBP, Selwood, (t17530607-33); OBP, Hanvy, (t17850629-114).

35 OBP Cunningham, (t17891028-18) similarly the unnamed seller of OBP, April 1807, Mary Berry, (t18070408-93) was located near a cattle yard and brewery.

36 OBP, February 1792, John Lewis, Robert Pearce, (t17920215-7).

37 Egan, Real Life in London, vol ii, 251.

38 OBP, May 1809, William Jones, Moses Fonseca (t18090517-17), OBP, Durant, Kite, Ellis (t18100606-70), OBP, January 1823, Edmund Law, Thomas Webb (t18230115-97) and OBP, May 1805, John Rose (t18050529-41).

39 For example OBP, September 1790, Joseph Pocock, Sarah Watson (t17900915-34).

40 Hitchcock, Down and Out, 154–6.

41 OBP, January 1757, Elizabeth Knotmill, (t17570114-17) and OBP, William William Law, (t17830723-122). Of the eleven sellers who gave testimony five referred to selling in specific locations.

42 De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 97, 108.

43 OBP, May 1777, John Gibson, (t17770514-29) and OBP Lewis, Pearce, (t17920215-7).

44 Arnout, “Comfort and Safety,” 95.

45 To see more about sense and space see Tullet, Smell in Eighteenth-Century England, 53.

46 Taverner, “Selling Food in the Streets of London,” 124–31.

47 Gwynn, London and Westminster Improved, 17–18 quoted in Ogborn, Spaces of Modernity, 100 and Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night, 88.

48 Otter, Victorian Eye, 221–4.

49 Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night, 7.

50 OBP, Dixon, t17680907-29.

51 Kelley, Cheap Street, 160.

52 OBP, Milton, Cossey, (t18021201-98).

53 Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night, 149 see also Kelley, Cheap Street, 172.

54 Marriott, The Other Empire, 115.

55 Lamb, Essays of Elia, 117–19, unfortunately little other detail is provided as to the character of saloop’s scent.

56 Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, 160.

57 Pyne, Pynes’s British Costumes.

58 Ellis, Coulton, and Mauger, Empire of Tea, 185.

59 Pennell, “Great Quantities of Gooseberry Pye,” 239–40.

60 OBP, September 1785, John Berrow (t17850914-179) and OBP, October 1740, Mary Harwood (t17401015-65).

61 Miller, “Force of Habit,” 404–6.

62 Carter, “Scarlet Fever,” 157–64.

63 Henderson, Disorderly Women, 59.

64 OBP, June 1752, Elizabeth Selwood, Mary M'Daniel, Martha Atkins, (t17530607-33).

65 Charles, Comfort or the Luxury of Charcoal, British Museum see also Ball and Sunderland, An Economic History of London, 12.

66 Pennell, Birth of the English Kitchen, 127.

67 For traditional economic and social histories see Hitchcock, Down and Out, chapter 3; Ball and Sunderland, An Economic History of London, 103; Fontaine, A History of Pedlars in Europe; For historians now considering the material culture of sellers see Taverner, Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London and Susan Curley Meyer, PhD University College Dublin.

68 OBP, May 1784, Joseph Levy, (t17840526-43).

69 Appadurai, The Social Life of Things, 16–17, 44–7.

70 Nancy and Dannehl, Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities.

71 Brown, In Praise of Hot Liquors, 86.

72 Hot Water Urn, “The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection” and Ellis, Coulton, and Mauger, Empire of Tea, 229.

73 Prowen, “Mind in Matter,” 3–5.

74 Wadham, “Tea Fountain or Tea Pot.”

75 Fromer, A Necessary Luxury, 66.

76 Clifford, “Concepts of Invention, Identity and Imitation … ,” 251.

77 Wadham, “Tea Fountain or Tea Pot.”

78 For more on their use in portraiture see Retford, “From the Interior to Interiority,” 291. See also Collet, The Honey-Moon, 1782, Etching, British Museum, London, 1859,0709.675.

79 Richards, Eighteenth-Century Ceramics, 163.

80 Yonan, “Toward a Fusion of Art History … ,” 243.

81 Styles, “Lodging at the Old Bailey,” 72–6.

82 Hughes, “The Georgian Vogue of the Tea-Urn,” 1026–7; OBP, July 1787, James Smith (t17870711-99) and OBP, September 1780, Benjamin Kinder, (t17800913-97).

83 Mintz, “The Changing Roles of Food … ,” 265.

84 Dean, “A Slipware Dish by Samuel Malkin,” 27.

85 Withington, “Where Was the Coffee,” 74.

86 Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain, 163–4.

87 Based on digital conversation with Jaqui Pearce of Mola, 24–25th June 2020.

88 Baker, “Creamware in Context,” 31–2; Massey, “Understanding Creamware,” 25–6.

89 McCaffrey-Howarth, “Revolutionary Histories in Small Things,” 261–2 notes one set of “printed tea-cups and saucers” recorded as costing two shillings in the 1790s.

90 Egerton, Street Breakfast, 1825, Aquatint, London Metropolitan Archives, London, q8035015.

91 Jeffries, “The New Beverages – Tea and Coffee,” 272.

92 Harley, “Consumption and Poverty in the Homes … ,” 93–4.

93 Richards, Eighteenth-Century Ceramics, 155.

94 Based on digital conversation with Jacqui Pearce of Mola, 24–25th June 2020 and Pearce, “Consumption of Creamware,” 242–51.

95 Ellis, Coulton, and Mauger, Empire of Tea, 189.

96 McCaffrey-Howarth, “Revolutionary Histories in Small Things,” 261.

97 Smith, “Sensing Design and Workmanship,” 7.

98 Pennell, “For a Crack or Flaw Despis’d,” 30.

99 OBP, Law, Webb (t18230115-97).

100 OBP, February 1817, John Olsoz, (t18170219-13).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Freya Purcell

Freya Purcell is a design historian who focuses on social history and urban living in the early modern period. She recently completed the V&A/RCA MA in the History of Design, where her thesis focussed on saloop. She has just completed a researcher in residency for the Archival Network Women Make Cities undertaking original research on Scottish Street sellers and a curatorial traineeship with North Hertfordshire Museum and Curating for Change.