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199
Eating houses offered substantial dinners for 9d. and "tea,
shrimps and cake" for 6d. with a special rate for tea of 4d. per
head for large parties. In the shops and at the Nelson Street
and Trafalgar Road markets, bread was 4½d. the quartern loaf
(4 lbs), good chops at 5½d. and tomatoes at 3d. per pound. Best
quality coal was to be had for 27/- per ton and pipe smokers
could obtain their shag at l½d. or 2d. an ounce.
Early closing usually meant five o'clock instead of any
time up till midnight. Many a Sunday joint was purchased by
the poorer people at midnight on Saturday when it could confidently
be expected that the butcher, at his weekly auction,
would finally reduce his meat to 3d. per pound in order to clear
his shop. The following morning, Sunday's dinner would be
taken round to the nearest bakehouse where it could be cooked
for a ½d., often while parents were socializing in the "local".
For the children, Sunday tended to be strictly observed and one
suspects that the regular attendance at Sunday School was due
more to the prospect of "excursions", "outings", or "parties"
rather than to religious conviction.
Holidays, as we know them, were almost non-existent and
entertainment was usually at weekends by way of paddle
steamer trips to Southend or Margate for the princely sum of
2s. 6d. return. Many would spend a day on the "beach" at
Greenwich or at the fair on Blackheath at Bank holiday times,
those most colourful occasions where, with almost complete
abandon, factory girls resplendent in their magenta velvet
dresses and royal blue hats trimmed with ostrich feathers would
dance the whole day long. At night, in the glare of naphtha
flares, the stalls and sideshows would have their own particular
fascinating attraction. Long, open, four-horsed "brakes" seating
twelve or fourteen each side would provide the transport for
the local public houses' annual men's outings to Southend or
the countryside. Amusements were limited to local theatres
with their Victorian melodramas or to the more popular,
vociferous music halls such as the local "Crowders" establishment.
London theatres were rarely visited except by the more
affluent.
Travel was exciting although roads and carriageways,
usually of cobble stones or packed flint and grit, were pot-holed
from age and neglect rather than use, except in the main
thoroughfares where the local Board of Works had made
arrangements with the proprietors of the horse tramways to
keep their portion of the road in good repair. Although London's