is believed to have been a Christian centurion who was martyred by the Roman Emperor Diocletian at Lydda in Palestine around AD 303. He took on a symbolic importance to the English when Richard the Lionheart recaptured the church at Lydda during the Crusades. In 1415, his feast day was declared a national religious festival in England after the Battle of Agincourt.
Pearly Kings and Queens, descendants of London's earliest fruit & vegetable sellers, are the East End's most famous inhabitants.
To commemorate the Queen's official birthday in June, crowds gather to watch the Trooping the Color at Horse Guards Parade. The Queen inspects her Guards as they march past and then proceeds to Buckingham Palace at the head of them. This heralds the beginning of the "summer season". The race meeting at Royal Ascot in the third week of June has a strict dress code: men wear lounge or morning suits with top hats, and the women dress up, too, especially on "Ladies Day" when they wear their most extravagant headwear. The Wimbledon lawn tennis championship takes place in the last week of June and first week of July. Tonnes of strawberries are served with cream, and gallons of Pimms and champagne are drunk.
Meanwhile, at the Henley Royal Regatta, blazer-clad men and women in floating dresses picnic on the tables and chairs set out in front of their Rolls-Royces or Bentleys!
At the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August, a carnival takes place in London's Notting Hill. Staged by the West Indian community, the participants parade in colorful costumes and dance to pulsating reggae rhythms. The streets fill up with thousands of people and the partying continues well into the night. Street vendors sell West Indian foods.
As summer fades away, Harvest festival is celebrated in churches with altars laden with sheaths of corn and baskets of fruits and vegetables.
On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes, a Catholic, was found in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, planning to ignite barrels of gunpowder later that day when the Protestant King James I was to open Parliament. Every year, to commemorate the foiling of the plot, children make replica 'guys' which are burnt on bonfires. Firework displays and bonfire parties are held all over Britain.
As the year draws to a close, the shops are piled high with Christmas goodies gifts. Houses and streets all over the country are decorated with lights and Christmas trees. London's Regent Street and Oxford Street are illuminated, and Trafalgar Square is adorned by a huge lit Christmas tree, a present from the people of Norway. On Christmas Day, brave members of the Serpentine Swimming Club plunge into the icy river to race for the Peter Pan Cup. On December 31, people gather in Trafalgar Square and at the London Eye to welcome in the New Year. As the chimes of Big Ben strike midnight, they join hands and sing "Auld Lang Syne" and the celebrations for the New Year begin.
Revellers in the streets at London's Notting Hill Carnival, the largest carnival in Europe.
Eels, Pie, and Mash
For a taste of real East End Cockney food, you can still savor pie and mash
by Charlotte Hunt
Pie, mash, and liquor, together with jellied or stewed eels, are often perceived as Cockney food—a speciality of London's East End. It's true that today the majority of the distinctive eel, pie and mash houses are situated in this part of the capital, and many of the original establishments, from the 1840s onwards, sprung up here. However, just after World War II, you could eat this traditional dish in at least 130 shops all over the city from Soho to Bermondsey.
Sadly only a fraction remain, as the arrival of fast food and worldwide gastronomic influences have brought about the partial demise of this traditional fare. However, the trade is still dominated by three families—the Cookes, Manzes, and Kellys, whose history is an important part of the pie and mash story.
No one knows who invented the dish or opened the first shop. We do know that in Victorian London, street vendors sold eel pies, providing cheap yet nutritious food for the poor. These were eaten with parsley sauce, spiced with chilies and vinegar, which survives today as the famous green liquor.
Ealing eel and pie shop that serves traditional pie, mash, and eels to Londoners.
The eels originally came from Holland and legend suggests that John Antink, a Dutch trader, sold the fish from a makeshift shop, although Kelly's Trades Directory doesn't mention this business until 1880. However, we can verify the existence of an eel and pie shop in 1844 at 101 Union Street, London SE1. Here a man called Henry Blanchard sold meat, eel, and fruit pies for a penny as well as live eels and mashed potato. By 1874, Kelly's listed 33 eel and pie shops, and their success no doubt encouraged Robert Cooke to open his own establishment in Clerkenwell in 1889, officially launching the Cooke eel and pie empire. Staff wore white aprons, and a typical shop had white-tiled walls, marble tables, wooden benches, and huge mirrors. There were two large windows on either side of the front door, which opened up to provide a takeout service. The customers spat eel bones onto the sawdust-covered floor, although everything was scrupulously clean and the interiors had a simple elegance and charm. Inspired by his success, Cooke swiftly opened up a second shop in Watney Street El while his wife opened a third shop in Hoxton Street Nl. Another pie and mash pioneer, Michaele Manze, arrived from Ravello, Italy, in 1878. He soon became friends with Robert Cooke, married his daughter Ada and opened up the first Manze shop in Bermondsey.
Finally, Samuel Kelly, an Irish immigrant, opened his Bethnal Green Road shop in 1915 and by the 1940s the business had expanded to include four other shops, all within a mile and a half radius.
Pie and mash survived the World Wars despite conscription of the white working class males who made up the majority of regular customers. The shops upheld their reputation for supplying good reasonably priced food although eels were scarce and eel pies largely disappeared from the menu.
Rewards were justly reaped when the wars were over and boys in their demob suits flooded the shops desperate for a taste of their favorite cuisine.
Pie and mash enjoyed huge popularity and for the next few years London's thriving docks, factories and markets guaranteed an enormous demand.
In the 1950s, rising rents forced many factories to move out to newly built towns in Essex. The pie and mash clientele moved with them and the number of London shops decreased to the present-day figure of around thirty.
Shrewd local businessmen opened up similar eating houses in the new towns as well as nearby seaside resorts, ensuring that pie and mash was no longer exclusive to London. However, the original proprietors still claim that customers travel for miles to enjoy the dish in its "proper" form.
The Cookes still have four shops, and the Manzes, who proved themselves the true entrepreneurs of the business with 14 shops, still have five branches. Five Kelly's shops also continue to thrive, serving East End regulars and visitors as they have done for 86 years.
Many London families remain loyal pie and mash enthusiasts and the meal has recently been discovered by the middle classes intrigued by this slice of culinary history. Hopefully, the appeal of cheap, tasty sustaining food eaten in historic surroundings will survive.
A live eel prior to preparation in the kitchens of F. Cookes pie and mash shop in Broadway Market.
Dining
