thoughts of London are of the royal family, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and the Houses of Parliament. Yet, behind all the tradition and the pomp and ceremony of formal London, there is a truly contemporary and cosmopolitan flavor to Britain's capital city. So, the next time you're in London town and you feel the pangs of hunger coming on, remember that you really are spoilt for choice!
A Culinary History of London
From the Romans to the present day
by Kathryn Hawkins
When the invading Roman legions reached Britain in AD 43, they introduced a variety of foods, such as peacocks, fallow deer, pheasants, figs, grapes, mulberries, walnuts, and chestnuts, as well as many of the herbs we cultivate today, including parsley, dill, mint, rosemary, and sage. They also brought vegetables, such as cabbages, onions, garlic, lettuce, turnips, and radishes. Add to this a list of culinary commodities like dates, almonds, olives, olive oil, ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, and it is clear to see their profound influence.
In London (Londinium as it was called), some essential foods were locally produced. Salt, used for preserving and flavoring, came from the Thames estuary, and oysters were collected off the Kent coast. As well as trading with every part of the Roman Empire, London became the center for grain supplies, and for many centuries thereafter, locally grown grain and other farm produce could easily be brought to the capital from Kent, Essex, Surrey, and the Thames valley by river or road for trade and distribution.
The Romans loved feasting; these diners are celebrating the feast of Hortensius.
The next important period in London's culinary history is between 1066 and 1520: medieval London. Sugar arrived in Britain courtesy of the Crusaders who brought it back from the East. Packed in white or brown cone shapes, it was very expensive and was regarded as a spice. Around 1290, citrus fruits began to arrive, and lemons were used fresh or pickled, as well as Seville oranges.
The range of imports and exports handled in London's harbors, wharves, and markets was impressive. They included strawberries, cherries, peas, beef, cod, mackerel, pepper, saffron, and cloves.
The earliest surviving recipe books date from this time. Fed up with salt, pepper, and the homegrown mustard and saffron used as flavorings, people were looking further afield to more exotic tastes, such as nutmeg, mace, cardamom, and cloves. These spices became highly sought after for their pungent, aromatic flavors. However, these spices were expensive as they were not imported direct and had to be purchased from markets in mainland Europe.
During the sixteenth century, the basic English food and diet remained the same as that of the previous era. Roast and boiled meat, fish and poultry, bread, ale, and wine formed a large part of the diet of the upper classes, and fruit and vegetables were less popular. In fact, during the great plague of 1569, the sale of fruit was banned in the streets because it was believed to cause sickness. After about 1580, however, there was a growth, in market gardening, and by the turn of the next century, Londoners, who had always bought their fruit and vegetables from France and other parts of Europe, were able to buy from the orchards and gardens of Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire. Even city gardeners were successful with only a few acres of land because demand was so high. For the more discerning and wealthy palate, new produce was still arriving from foreign shores—quinces, apricots, raspberries, red and black currants, melons, and pomegranates, as well as dried fruits and nuts.
This was the time of exploration and a number of rare and exotic foods began to arrive back in Elizabethan England: tomatoes from Mexico, kidney beans from Peru, turkeys and potatoes from Central America. Sugar grew in popularity, and from the 1540s a London refinery was busy making coarse crystals into tightly-packed white crystalline cones. Sugar was used increasingly in preserving and for making all sorts of sweetmeats.
Coffee, chocolate, and tea arrived at the end of the century, and by the turn of the next, cookery books included recipes for dishes from Persia, Turkey, and Portugal, showing an ever-increasing fascination and demand for foreign flavors and delicacies; even ice had been introduced from the Continent at this time, as an idea for preserving.
By 1800, England was on the brink of the modern era, as the balance of power shifted from the land to the towns with the rise of the prosperous new middle classes, the development of newspapers and advertising, and the birth of a consumer society.
Cardinal Wolsey presides over a banquet in the Presence Chamber at King Henri VII's Hampton Court palace.
The beginnings of what has now become one of London's leading supermarket chains: J. Sainsbury's grocery store circa 1920.
The making and taking of tea became an elegant ceremony amongst the middle and upper classes in London. In 1717, Thomas Twining had opened the first tea shop for ladies—there were already coffee shops for gentlemen—and in 1720, the first tea garden was opened in the old Vauxhall Gardens. This "fashion" soon spread, and tea eventually became an important social drink and industry.
Cooking methods changed from open fire and spit roasting to flat iron griddles and plates on hobs. Roasting was the most important method of cooking, followed by boiling in a large cauldron, and then stewing and sauce-making over a gentle heat. Ice houses were built by the fashionable, and ice creams became a speciality. New recipe books of the period were written for the gentry and aimed to encourage them to aspire to a higher standard of living. Dinner table layouts, table manners and etiquette were featured, together with suggestions for different courses.
The style of eating also changed: simply flavored sauces and melted butter were served with meat dishes and vegetables alike; the pudding was invented—both savory and sweet; and sweetbreads and cakes were popular as sugar came down in price.
Hothouses grew tomatoes, grapes, peaches, and salad vegetables. The advances and discoveries in agriculture led to cattle and livestock being bred for meat production all year round, and farm animals began to replace wild ones in the nation's diet. The big landowners gained control over the wild game on their land owing to the new land enclosure acts and the enforcement of severe gaming laws.
The poor, on the other hand, suffered in London as they did elsewhere. Thousands of rural laborers had lost their small homes and vegetable plots as a result of land enclosures, and were reduced to poverty and a diet of bread and potatoes. In London, working class families ate bread, potatoes, poor- quality meat and offal, fish, milk, tea, sugar, beer, butter, lard or dripping, and cheese. Supplies were inadequate and many were almost starving.
A busy scene at Billingsgate fish market in London in 1935.
Advertisement posters from the 1930s for two popular meat extract drinks, Bovril and OXO
However, as the eighteenth century drew to a close, food production increased in the United States, South America, Europe, India, and Australia. Transport became cheaper, and food processing techniques, such as freezing, canning, and bottling, were developed. Food prices fell, "whilst wages remained the same, and consequently the poor were able to afford a better diet.
South London became an important center for manufacturing branded foods: Crosse and Blackwell, who made pickles, sauces, and condiments, had a factory in Southwark; Peak Frean and Company made biscuits in their Bermondsey factory; and Thomas Lipton started jam production.
In 1869, John Sainsbury opened his first grocery store in Drury Lane, offering a wider range of culinary goods than ever before, and aimed at the new middle classes. This store became the predecessor of the modern-day supermarket. By the early 1900s, several were operating in Britain and the "multiple ownership" culture was born. It wasn't until 1949 that the first