Tubby Isaac’s Jellied Eel Stall, Aldgate
At the furthest extent of Spitalfields where it meets Aldgate is Tubby Isaac’s Jellied Eel Stall, run today by Paul Simpson, fourth generation in this celebrated business founded in 1919, still selling the fresh seafood that was once the staple diet in this neighbourhood. Here where the traffic thunders down Aldgate High St, tucked round the corner of Goulston St, Tubby Isaac’s stall shelters from the hurly burly. And one morning this week, Paul told me the story of his world famous stall as he set up for the day, while I savoured the salty sweet seaweed scent of the seafood and eager customers arrived to eat that famous East End delicacy, jellied eels for breakfast.
“I’ll be the last one ever to do this!” Paul confessed to me with pride tinged by melancholy, as he pulled a huge bowl of eels from the fridge,“My father Ted Simpson had the business before me, he got it from his Uncle Solly who took over from Tubby Isaac, who opened the first stall in 1919. Isaac ran it until 1939 when he got a whiff of another war coming and emigrated to America with his boys, so they would not be conscripted – but then they got enlisted over there instead. And when Isaac left, his nephew Solly took over the business and ran it until he died in 1975. Then my dad ran it from 1975 ’til 1989, and I’ve been here ever since.”
“I began working at the Walthamstow stall when I was fourteen – as a runner, cleaning, washing up, cutting bread, getting the beers, buying the coffees, collecting the bacon sandwiches. and sweeping up. The business isn’t what it was years ago, all the eels stalls along Roman Road and Brick Lane – they were here for a long, long time and they’ve closed. It’s a sign of the times.” he informed me plainly. Yet Paul Simpson is steadfast and philosophical, serving his regular customers daily, and taking consolation from their devotion to his stall. In fact, “Regular customers are my only customers” he admitted to me with a weary smile, “and some of them are in their eighties and nineties who used to come here with their parents!”
Understandably, Paul takes his eels very seriously. Divulging something of the magic of the preparation of this mysterious fish, he explained that when eels are boiled, the jelly exuded during the cooking sets to create a natural preservative. “Look, it creates its own jelly!” declared Paul, holding up the huge bowl of eels to show me and letting it quiver enticingly for my pleasure. The jelly was a crucial factor before refrigeration, when a family could eat from a bowl of jellied eels and then put the dish in a cold pantry where the jelly would reset preserving it for the next day. Paul was insistent that he only sells top quality eels, always fresh never frozen, and after a lifetime on the stall, being particular about seafood is almost his religion. “If you sell good stuff, they will come,” he reassured me, seeing that I was now anxious about the future of his stall after what he said earlier.
Resuming work, removing bowls of winkles, cockles, prawns and mussels from the fridge, “It ain’t a job of enjoyment, it’s a job of necessity,” protested Paul, turning morose again, sighing as he arranged oysters in a tray, “It’s what I know, it’s what pays the bills but it ain’t the kind of job you want your kids to do, when there’s no reward for working your guts off.” Yet in spite of this bluster, it was apparent Peter harbours a self-respecting sense of independence at holding out again history, after lesser eel sellers shut up shop. “When it turns cold, I put so many clothes on I look like the Michelin man by the end of the day!” he boasted to me with a swagger, as if to convince me of his survival ability.
Then Jim arrived, one of Tubby Isaac’s regulars, a cab driver who wolfed a dish of eels doused in vinegar and liberally sprinkled with pepper, taking a couple of lobster tails with him for a snack later. Paul brightened at once to greet Jim and they fell into hasty familar chit-chat, the football, the weather and the day’s rounds, and Jim got back on the road before the traffic warden came along. “It’s like a pub here, the regulars come all day.” Paul confided to me with a residual smile. And I saw there was a certain beauty to the oasis of civility that Tubby Isaac’s manifests, where old friends can return regularly over an entire lifetime, a landmark of continuity in existence.
It is a testament to Paul Simpson’s tenacity and the quality of his fish that Tubby Isaac’s is still here, now that this once densely populated former Jewish neighbourhood has emptied out and the culture of which jellied eels was a part has almost vanished. Tubby Isaac’s is a stubborn fragment of an earlier world, carrying the lively history of the society it once served now all the other jellied eels stalls in Aldgate are gone and the street is no longer full with people enjoying eels. But leaving all this aside, Paul is open seven days a week selling delicious and healthy non-fattening food, so please seek him out and try it for yourself.
The earliest photo of “Tubby” Isaac Brenner who founded the stall in 1919.
Tubby and one of his sons in the 1920s
Ted Simpson, Solly and Patsy Gritzman in the 1940s, after Tubby and his sons left for America.
In Petticoat Lane, 1960s
Ted serves jellied eels to Burt Reynolds and American talk show host Mike Douglas in the 1970s
Ted shakes hands with Ronnie Corbett
Joan Rivers helped out at the stall in the 1980s
Paul Simpson at the stall in 1989, before it became refridgerated.
Tubby Isaacs stall in Aldgate today.
I’ve never had jellied eels. First chance I get I’m going to Tubby Isaac’s to get some. It’s almost worth joining twitter so I can tweet “scoffing jellied eels at Tubby Isaac’s.”
Great story and lovely historic photos. Long may Paul continue to serve his jellied eels – a great East End tradition!
Sorry to be pedantic, but that’s Burt Reynolds in the photo, not Burt Lancaster.
A very nice article honouring Tubby’s. I’m 35 & was born & raised in Aldgate (on Goulston Street) & I’m a Tubby regular. Albeit, more a cockles & winkles Cockney girl than a jellied eel one! I remember Ted like it was yesterday & Paul’s been there for years now. Please encourage your readers to keep our East End traditions alive & frequent Tubby’s. Even if it’s to make yourselves a posh prawn sandwich, get your prawns from Tubby’s. Please!!
I can remember when returning from the theatre in a coach party
at night in the 1960’s, the coach stopped at Tubby Isaacs and we all bought some, but the main memory was the dozens of rats running almost over our feet, dozens of them waiting for he discarded bones, the eels were delicious.
Gary
I lived in the East End when I was a child and remember Tubby Isaacs well my mum and dad sometimes took us to his stall for Jellied Eels and Whelks on a Saturday night we walked up Mile End Road and Whitechapel to Aldgate, as a matter of fact I thought about him a couple of nights ago when I saw something on TV. about Aldgate. I did not know that he lived in the States. Jellied Eels and a good dollop of vinegar yum yum.
It will be a sad day if Paul folds up his business. Old traditions as the likes of jellied eels will one day be lost , along with the characters. Remember when i was a boy ( I’m 64 ) living in Great Yarmouth there was an eel stall at the end of the market, crowds of people sampling the sheer delight of this Cockney dish . The floor was littered with bones that had been spat out . Wonder what “Health and Saftey ” would make of it now ? The word nostalgia comes to mind ….sentimental yearning for a period of the past, regretful or wistful memory of an earlier time , that just about sums it up . What with the decline in the eel population and the high price to buy them I’m afraid the writing is on the wall for the beloved eel.
Keep going as long as you can Paul you are a dying bread.
Sorry Paul ” You are a dying ” BREED “
It was nice to see that Joan Rivers was helping out. The other helper was my father who was afectionally known as Jellied eel Jack. He happened to help out for over 40 years!!!
It is true it will be a sad day if and when Tubby Isaacs finally closes. The stall has been a part of East London throughout my life.
I fondly remember Solly, Teddy and many other characters on that stall, I may be bias but my father was the best and for all those who remember him, why did we listen to his terrible jokes!!!
To Paul and the rest of his family, I hope you are keeping well and lets hope this national institution lasts a lot longer.
Paul Strong
i remember me and my father delivering produce to the fruit markets and stoppin for seafood at tubby isaacs “my old man would place the fish up on the headboard of the motor to keep cool “till we got home. “he sometimes eat jellie eels under the clock in spitalfields market “while i,ll be dropping produce to all the stands around the market ” i remember all the cafes the golden glove caravan under the church over the road… the cage at the bottom end of the market where the homeless would have a fire to keep warm on cold nights and i,ll be looking up at the old empty windowless houses all dark with long since forgotten wallpaper hanging off the walls.. “meanwhile i;ll be on top of lorry the throwing down nets of peas on the corner of A may & co;s stand…. then about 1 am in the morning the local firemen would come along and turn the hose on the fire. poor homeless souls ” only trying to keep warm. ….
I loved the pictures they tell so many stories of bygone days, this is where the real London was found there were so many wonderful characters,keep up the good work i wish you the best of luck. Jellied eels are real food.
I too have great memories of Ted and Solly when I was a wee lad back in the seventies.
Every week I would travel up from Clacton-on-sea, at some unearthly time of the morning, with my late father, Karl, to collect the stock for our seafood stalls, from Solly at Billingsgate and latterly from Barneys.
Sadly what Paul says is also true here in Clacton, jellied eels are not as sought after as they were a few years back. With the exception of a few of the younger generation who were introduced to Eels by their parents, the older generation are slowly leaving us. Seafood stix and pinx, slaughtered with prawn cocktail sauce, seems to be the fashion these days!!
We are fortunate here, not only do we have the beach and the pier to attract the punters, we also have the legacy and reputation of Paul, Ted, Solly and Eddie to fall back on.
Despite all the odds stacked against him, be it congestion zone, the dreaded red parking lines, eating habits, change of clientele etc etc I think Paul does remarkably well to survive.
Dont give up Paul, not many of us left now! 😉
I remember Solly in the 70’s he used to pull up in his open back Toyota Hiace truck to bring the seafood to his stall around about 0630 on a sunday morning just before the market would start, i know because i used to work on the stall next door, we were in between Tubby Isaac’s and Barney’s in Goulston street. I remember when Ted took over the business and remember Paul very well also. Those jellied eels were the best that i have ever tasted , but to agree with Paul’s comments, they are not as popular as they used to be. I am so glad that Paul has kept the business going but i wonder for how long as the culture of that area has changed so much over the years. Ted was a lovely bloke and a complete character who always had a the last word which was always funny. Keep it up as long as you can Paul.
Sorry, meant to mention as well, i remember Jack as well, he used to work there for as long as i can remember, he was also a lovely bloke ,friendly and proper old school.
Thank you all for your positive comments and feedback, lovely to read. To Paul Strong- Jack was a huge part of Tubby Isaacs, as you know he worked with my dad and myself everyday for 40 years I still miss him, he was a great bloke – though i dont miss his ‘terrible jokes!’ I hope you and your family are all doing well, please come up and see us before business drives us away.
Paul Simpson
Tubby Isaacs
My Grandfather Mark Grodentz ran the pub in the 20/30’s where Tubby Isaacs had his stall, can anybody tell me the name of the pub?
I remember back in 1969 going with my Dad Bobby Grodentz, to have a drink in grandad’s pub only to find that it had been demolished!
Mitch
I was born in plaistow and was raised on tubby’s when I was 3 I had gastric problems and could not keep food or water down, I was in hospital and the dr’s did not know if I would make it, my dad fed me tubby’s eels it was the only thing I could keep down, they saved my life. Thanks tubby x
How pleased my wife and I found Tubby’s stall in Aldgate. We were on a couple of day’s out in London (where we used to live) after travelling down from Somerset. After visiting a couple of nostalgic places it was our intention to find this stall and sure enough we did. How fantastic it was to taste the flavours of the East End. Whilst we enjoyed our seafood it made us reflect back to the War years when our parents were ducking and diving from the bombs. Our parents loved us and we in turn love Tubby’s for the wonderful seafood and for keeping the East End tradition alive. Tubby is part of our history, Tubby is London. Tubby should never ever be forgotten.
Keep up the good work, my old cock sparrow, we all love you.
His name was actually Isaac Brenner. After he died, I believe the business was run by his wife’s brothers, Solly & Issy Griczman.
THE BALLAD OF TUBBY ISSACS
In the east end of London, beneath the Bow Bells
An old man in Brick Lane, from his barrow he sells
The finest of fare, that all cockney can sport
Tubby Issacs’ his name, and he doesn’t fill short
He’s up every new dawn, collecting his nets
Before London’s awoken, he’s covered his debts
And he’s sliced ‘em and boiled ‘em, to an ole recipe
Then lets them set firm, in a lemon jelly
Stood shouting in Aldgate, plying his trade
With a bucket of top nosh, that’s all London made
For a score of years famous, for his fine cockney meals
Spiced with pepper and chillies, pedalled jellied eels
There’s a rye little footnote, to round off this tale
When is country was needy, Tubby’s courage too frail
When Adolf came calling, a big war to create
Tubby jumped on a boat, and sailed off to the states
Extracted from Pie ‘n Mash ‘n Liquor (101 New Songs For Old London) published by http://www.lulu.com on 1st December 2011. Email for more info. Roger
How well I remember going to Tubby Isaac’s as a kid, in the lat 50’s early 60’s.
We lived first in Bow then Stepney Green, and if anyone went ‘Up West’ a stop off on the way home for Jellied Eels was an essential part of the evening. The odd thing was that the bread that you got with the eels always seemed the best you had ever tasted.
I guess like so many you move away to remote out of town locations and forget the basic things that gave so much pleasure. Must make sure I visit soon
I was a North Londoner and didn’t visit Tubby Isaacs but I used to get my jellied eels post match from a stall outside Spurs ground. The best jellied eels I’ve had were at Brighton races but having now moved to Luton I can recommend the large fish stall in the indoor market where the jellied eels are excellent.
Since coming to live in Ireland 10 years ago, there are three things I really miss and yearn for.
They are Bath Oliver biscuits, Gentleman’s Relish, but above all, and far above the others, jellied eels. I can hardly believe that they are declining in popularity!
There was a first rate fishmonger in my local town, who, 20 odd years ago, since I was a weekly customer, used to sell me, perhaps once a month, a whole commercial container of them for £7.
They were always gone in three days. I remember one Christmas when I felt really ill, and the only thing I could eat that Christmas was jellied eels- mercifully, I had ordered a big bowl in advance. I had some from Tubby every time I came to London.
If a bowl of snakes, as I’ve always called them, really does disappear, it will be a National tragedy and disgrace.
Now living in the north, we have happy memories of living on the Commercial Road (near the Troxy) in the nineteen-sixties. We’ve never been into jellied eels and the like, but we recall with pleasure coming home from nights out in town and passing by Tubby Isaac’s stall at Aldgate, and seeing the cheeky, defiant Cockney humour of his sign: ‘We lead, others follow.’
I first had jellied eels back in the 1960’s when it was Tubby Isaac’s stall with vinegar and maybe a bit of tabasco, plus all the shellfish that was sold. To this day I still can’t get enough of jellied eels I try to frequent pie & mash shops serving stewed eels with pie & mash yum yum!!
love all the comments . Tubby brings back lovely memeries , i can go back to the early 1946 when my brothers and me all sitting indoors , playing i spy . Then my dad would say who fancies jellied eels. say no more. And this would be 8 o clock at night . And away we would go . I have seen as many 2and3 coaches loads all wanting eels. I /6 a bowl and as much bread you could eat , and 4 people serving . And one standing cutting bread up and having a job to keep up with demarnd. BRING BACK THE THEM DAYS PLEASE ……..,,
I am traveling from the bottom of South Africa in June to sample the delights of the old East End. A cockney born and bred, with a dustman for a dad and a general dealer/ragwoman for a mom, I am proud to tell anybody where my roots are. Memories of my old dad eating at Tubby’s stool will stay with me until I die. Stir up the jelly and order some extra crabs (if you still do them) cos I’m on my way.
Remember as a kid my dad taking me to Petticoat lane and dad always stopping at Tubbys having a feed and sharing it with me.
every pregnancy I ate tubbys when I had the money. Yeh all the babes were big… tall but thin(like eels like me too) and my labours only one or two contractions… now all three although they are young are 6 foot and the best athletes and have perfect skin. Aged 5 I used to catch eels and elvers as the ebb came in the wash in a carrier bag with holes punched with a fork or better as they slivered on to the marsh grass (only the girls were good at chasing them with a fork that I had cutout the centre tines)
we ate them all the time in the fens , just jellied… fancy fens folk liked a parsley béchamel… but we cooked jelly eels and no bread. Even after skinning they still swam headless. We only ate samphire with them. Bread was kind of expensive you had to buy it.
I was watching a re run of Fools and Horses (where Rodney marries) and they had jellied eels at the reception. I had no idea what they were, intrigued I googled it and found this lovely page! What a wonderful piece of living history surrounded by the skyscrapers of today. I wish you many more years of success Paul and am sure the great tradition will follow after you. I live in Dublin, however next trip to London I am going to make a trip up to you for my first bowl!
About 40 years ago I holidayed in Lloret de Mar where I met a London chap of about 20 we got talking about various things and the East End cropped up he told me that he worked/ran Tubby Isaacs stall I regret that I have forgotten his name!
I told him that the original site was outside the Essex Tavern, on the corner of Aldgate High Street & Middlesex Street. I told him that my Grandfather Mark Grodentz was the Landlord of the Essex Tavern we parted and I said I would come down to see him at the stall.
A few months later I kept my word a visited him we had photos taken but sadly we never met again I remember he was about 5 ‘ 8″ with shortish curly hair.
I am looking for a photo of the Essex Tavern and wondered if you have any from your history?
I love Jellied Eels, and make my pilgrammage on a weekly basis for a bowl or two. Problem is due to the change in peoples tastebuds, I’m afraid that a 100 year old institution will soon be no more. I can remember going along as a kid, with barneys on one side and Tubbys on the other side of Goulston St. There’s rarely more than 2-3 people at the stall at peek lunch times. The eels taste good as ever, and other fish such as oysters, prawns, roll mops and cockles are a plenty. Despite appearing on the Apprentice and other TV programs, tourists and others merely stand there and watch to odd few digging into their eels. The place is like a working museum but without people trying the grub, Tubby Issacs will be lucky to see out the next 5 years.
There is no better food than jellied eels ! Parsley and pepper and chilli vinegar ! Totally brilliant ! What’s not to like !!!
I would just like to say that Tubby issacs is part of londons institution, I grew up on the Jellied eel,s and pie and mash, No one ever went hungry in our ouse, still crave for it today, the nearest i get to jellied eel,s now here in the Philippines is a snake crawling across my front room floor, keep up the good work .. kennie jones
As a child living in Woodford I sometimes would visit the market for cheap fashionable shirts and once got a great pair of glasses frames so I felt like Michael Caine!Tubby Isaacs sea food stall at the top of the street was always there and is part of my childhood.
Last year we visited London,as we now live in the Staffordshire Moorlands and there in Aldgate was the stall,tucked away by the station.I couldn`t believe it,my wife and grandchildren weren`t all that impressed but it brought all my past right back to me.The area has changed but other things have not,good luck for the future.
Great article. I love that stall. During my uni days in the mid-late ’90s I used to go to TI quite a bit. Miss the crabsticks n prawns! Let’s hope the business continues forever…
I have been using Tubby Isaccs all my life and l remeber Solly, Jack and Ted (your father) very well. My brother John has been working on this stall for over 50 years and l have spent many a Saturday night at this stall. Unfortunetly it will never be like it was in the old days as all the people who used to live in the East End no longer live there and they have been replaced by foreigners who do not know abour jellied eels. This l am sure will be the end of an era very soon, although l hope l am wrong.
I used to regularly eat whelks with chilli vinegar in the mid eighties. I cannot find whelks where I live now.
One day I was paid off and went to see the current owner’s father. He immediately detected my mood but cheered me up saying “like General Macarthur said I shall return!”
He was right, I did two years later!
As I warned all above, Tubby Issacs the name will cease to exist from Friday. Was nice to look at and see on TV but people needed to spend some money. End of an era, established 1919.
A very sad day, as I commented ealier things have changed drastically in that area over the years.
Tubby Isaacs is still alive and well in Chamber street E1 and here in Clacton-on-sea !!
one of the saddest days of my life today as the stool is open for the very last day. i have been going there since i was a little boy with my old dad who is no longer here to see it go. an end of an era and another piece of east londons history gone forever. a good friend of paul im sure we will meet up for a pint but im gutted that i will never be able to take my sons there to try the best eels man can buy. (Gutted)
My dad Jack worked on the stall for over 40 years until he passed away, known as Jellied Eel Jack and for his awfully bad jokes that you could not help laughing your head off at, Also have fond memories of Teddy and Solly and not forgetting the last survivor Paul, they all tried to get me to eat the eels but I just didn’t like them, I was always for the prawns and cockles . It’s the loss of an institution – I hope everything goes well for Paul and his family xx
P.S – my dad is the one with Joan Rivers
So sad to learn that Tubby Issacs has now finished. It was my only reason to drive down to the East End. I fondly remember all the staff especially Jack who l used to walk with to his flat right down the bottom of Mile End Road and Ted, Solly and of course my brother John. Very very sorry to see it gone now for good.
Good idea taking him and his son away from the German and British establishments bloodbath. That butcher Mountbatten loved eels , he bought all the Canadians , vain gloriously butchered at Dieppe a pot each.
I’m sure tubby would agree , all the working class Londoners I know would run a mile than take a bullet for Churchill, god bless you tubby a true working class londener. Does anyone know if he fought in the cable st riots against Mosley and the fascist Mitford sisters, what about the pro German Edward and Mrs Simpson.
They shall not pass
I was born in London 1940 evacuated @ 6months but always return to visit London and for 50years went to tubbys remember all the people mentioned who worked there I am going to London tomorrow and I am gutted to her tubbys has gone going to spoil my visit don’t really no where to get my eels does anyone no if I am correct in saying tubby and Barney where brothers Barney opened his store opposite and never spoke to each other again don’t wish to offend if I was misinformed many years ago how sad it’s all finished
Earlier today (Christmas Eve 2013) while driving back from Romford with my octogenarian father in law, I posed the question – whatever become of the jellied eel stalls from outside the pubs-; hence my reason for bumping in the Tubby Isaac’s story. I recall my mother eating whelks before she had her false teeth fitted; not something for the faint hearted to watch. I enjoyed reading Paul’s memories; those were the years which encompassed my life. Also, I never imagined I would ever get to see that infamous Burt Lancaster impression of Burt Reynolds.
the local kids in the 50s would go to tubby’s stall for sea food and the bonus when you were hungry was that” tubby” let us help ourself to the bread from the bread bin, as we could’nt afford more than two portions of sea food between about 5 or 6 of us. the tubby isaac’s workers were nice people.
I was born in Canning Town 1942.I moved to the USA in 1978 .When I go back to UK I always get eels and pie n mash.I miss them here in the US but yesterday my wife was shopping and unusually for here found some eels in the local super market.So tomorrow we are going to try to make some jellied eels.I hope we don’t screw the eels up as we are looking forward to scoffing them down.
A new Jellied Eel emporium has risen from the ashes – Tubb’s site is now occupied by Rose Seafood World Famous Jellied Eels!
http://www.jewisheastend.com/Polesden%20Lacey,%20East%20End%20043.JPG
Hi Im a relative of yours through my grandads Mother my gran was 85yrs old when I was born in 1958 in south countess Road Walthamstow E17 she was 90 yrs old when I was 5yrs old I would like to meet your family there is so much history she was my great Granmother my Granddads wifes name was Berta Yanetski her Father was Russian Polish The Isaacs came from Amsterdam to England in 1600 when Oliver Cromwell was here also the Isaacs were Fruit Importers I believe thats right the Tubby Isaac family might not know me as this goes back a very long time im a grandmother now and my sister and cousin is do these names to you ring a bell Ivy Pat Jimmy deceased sisters Renee and Birby they died when they were children and the above My dad Jim and my mum Julie lived in the Grange Flats walthamstow near the market st James Street please contact me Susan 01255 813511 Thankyou
I was brought up on tubbys jellied eels I used to look forward to sunday mornings when me and my dad would go up the lane first stop was tubbys for a bowl of eels when we had finished walking round the lane and club row back to tubbys for a bowl of cockles I was about 14 at the time im 70 now but I will never forget those sunday mornings thanks for the memories
And here is some video of Tubby Isaacs stall, narrated by Sid James:
https://youtu.be/YMHjsmCjL78?t=5m57s
Alan and or Steve .been a while since Israel , fancy a beer in sawbow ?
Alan or solly. Drop me a line,
remember Tubby Isaacs very well we used to come up from Kent at weekends boozing in the old Kent road then find a curry house rare in those early 60,s then off to Dan Farson’s pub on the isle of dogs then prospect of Whitby perhaps but always Tubby Isaacs for a plate of cockles or jellied eels fabulous thats nearly sixty years ago great time to grow up . My youngest son Daniel lives nearby in Hackney , it its more like the middle east now no characters and sadly sanitised pubs , I still think myself lucky to have been there before and sampled it on regular basis proper east end.