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6
In group B the classification given is as follows—
Paviors 180
Mosaic workers 130
Operatives in organ factories 60
Furniture, frame and barometer
makers 250
Ice labourers 300
Scullions 40
Organ-grinders 1,000
Ice-cream, potato and chestnut
vendors 2,000
The census figures for 1891 show only 1,069 males in Holborn who were born in Italy, and, at
first sight, this number seems quite out of keeping with the estimate obtained as the result of the
special inquiries made by the Italian consulate in 1895, which shows 1,000 organ-grinders and 2,000
ice-cream, potato and chestnut vendors in the " working class and Holborn district." Certain
considerations require to be borne in mind, however, in interpreting these figures, in the light of
which the discrepancy becomes less marked.
Thus there are considerable variations in the number of Italians in London at different times of
the year. Many young men come over from Italy for the ice-cream season, and during the summer
months the rooms of the poorer Italians are said to be much more crowded than is the case in the cold
weather. Presumably the estimate of the number of ice-cream vendors is based upon particulars
relating to the time of year when ice-creams are in season. The census enumeration on the other hand
of course relates to April, i.e., to a period before the summer inflow of Italians has attained considerable
proportions. Again a large element of uncertainty is introduced by the fact that a man who in
the summer is an ice-cream vendor, in the winter may sell potatoes or chestnuts, or hot drinks, or act as
organ-grinder, knife-grinder, waiter, pavior, or may-be in some other capacity. The interchange of
occupations which occurs at different times of the year requires to be kept in mind in connection with
any conclusion which may be drawn from the figures given above.
On a review of the information available it appears probable that during the height of the icecream
season there are in London some 2,000 Italians engaged in the trade. The majority of these
are actual " barrowmen." Again it may be assumed that about one-third of this total number live in
what is known as the " Italian quarter," an area north of the Clerkenwell-road situated in the
sanitary districts of Holborn and Clerkenwell, while the remainder reside in a number of small
scattered colonies. The most considerable collection of ice-cream vendors, apart from the " Italian
quarter" itself, is found in Deptford, where there are about half-a-dozen establishments which between
them account in the busy season for perhaps 50 barrows, as well as several sets of premises upon
which the ices sold by only one or two barrowmen are manufactured. The most outlying establishments
which I have come across within the county of London were a house occupied by Italians and
accommodating three or four barrowmen as far east as Plumstead and a small group of houses
accommodating some half-dozen barrowmen as far west as Fulham.
Description of premises upon which ice-cream is made.—The conditions under which the itinerant
vendors of ice-cream live, in whatever part of London a colony is established, are generally more or
less modelled, so far aa the local circumstances permit of this, upon those which obtain in the Italian
quarter itself. Some description of the chief Italian colony in London may therefore be given.
The " Italian quarter" includes certain streets, alleys and courts situated in the triangular area,
bounded on the south by Clerkenwell-road and on its other sides by Rosebery-avenue and Farringdonroad,
and lying partly in the sanitary district of Holborn and partly in the adjacent sanitary district of
Clerkenwell. The area thus defined is largely occupied by Italians, and here a considerable portion of
the ice-cream sold in London by itinerant vendors is manufactured. The core of the area, i.e., the
portion almost exclusively occupied by Italians, is formed by a street, Eyre-street-hill, some 20 feet
wide, which runs northward from Clerkenwell-road, and by the courts on each side of it, together
with Summers-street opening from it on the east side and Summers-court. The courts are approached
by passage-ways leading beneath houses fronting upon Eyre-street-hill; they are confined, narrow, and
end blindly, and contain a number of ill-ventilated cottages. Doubtless the poverty of many of the
street vendors has led to their being collected together in situations in which house accommodation is
of so unsatisfactory a kind; whatever the cause may be, however, the fact remains that wherever,
speaking generally, in this neighbourhood the need for re-construction and re-arrangement of houses
and groups of houses is most apparent, there the ice-cream industry particularly flourishes. Two of the
culs-de-sac referred to above are situated on the west side of Eyre-street-hill, viz., Eyre-terrace (containing
three two-storey cottages) and Eyre-court with five two-roomed and six three-roomed cottages.
These two courts adjoin one another and draw upon a common air space, but there is no footway
from one to the other, and each has its own separate entrance from Eyre-street-hill. Most of the
cottages in these courts have no through ventilation. At one end of Eyre-court is a row of trough
closets, the passage-way of the court itself contains many ice-cream barrows, and supplies standing
room for the receivers in which the freezing mixture is placed, for milk-cans and for receptacles for
house refuse. On the east side of Eyre-street-hill are Eyre-place and Fleet-row. The former is a
twelve foot wide courtyard below the level of the adjoining street, and access to the flight of steps
leading down to the court is obtained by means of a passage-way under a house which
fronts upon the main street. Eyre-place contains two houses without through ventilation.
Fleet-row is a cul-de-sac, also approached by a narrow passage-way beneath a house, and
containing fourteen two or three storey cottages, for the most part without through
ventilation. The passage way of Fleet-row is augmented in width over a part of its course
by the absence of cottages on the north side of the footway, and here is situated a row of
trough closets, with a collection of ice-cream barrows and ice-cream receptacles piled up in front of
it. The houses which front upon Eyre-street-hill and Summers-street are for the most part three
storeys high; those in Eyre-street-hill have usually a shop on the ground floor, and in both streets
there is commonly an underground room in each house. These cellars, which are usually low-pitched
and dark, are used in the case of some of the houses as day-rooms by Italian lodgers.