Listening to the stallholders in Columbia Road Flower Market crying their wares the other day struck a sad note. It’s the last gasp of a centuries old sales technique used round much of the rest of the world, reminding us that most goods and services used to be sold by hawkers walking the streets. These days it’s really only markets where traders try to catch the attention of potential buyers like this.
The cries themselves, often simple rhymes or short bursts of song, are the equivalent of advertising jingles performed to a live audience. They are first documented in England by John Lydgate, the 14thc poet, although they do not appear in print form in England until the early 17thc when they and the traders who used them became popular subjects for a new genre of print. It was the beginning of a tradition that evolved from prints into children’s books and then collections for adults and were even printed on cigarette cards, and which lasted well into the 20thc.
Images like that of “John Honeysuckle, the industrious gardener” give an insight into the way gardeners and gardening were perceived. He is described as “with a myrtle in his hand, the produce of his garden. He is justly celebrated for his beautiful bowpots and nosegays all round the country.” Other images show the range of food stuffs and flowers available, and the ways in which they were sold.
The inspiration for this post came from the blog Spitalfields Life whose author has carried out a huge amount of research into street cries, many of which he has uncovered in the library of the Bishopsgate Institute in London. I am indebted to him for permission to draw on his research for this week’s piece.
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