Skip to content

More Of Charles Hindley’s Cries Of London

August 9, 2014
by the gentle author

In his History of the Cries of London, Ancient & Modern of 1884, Charles Hindley reused many woodblocks from earlier publications and this series below dates from perhaps a century earlier.

Of all the sets I have published in these pages, these prints best illustrate the necessity of the Cries, since in most cases it would not be possible for customers to tell at a distance what sellers had in their baskets so, as well as announcing their presence, the Cries declared the wares on offer. There is a particular animated quality to this set, tracing the footsteps of the hawkers as they trudge the narrow streets, negotiating the puddles and the filth – and it makes you realise how much walking was involved, lugging produce round the city on foot.

Newcastle Salmon! Dainty fine Salmon! Dainty fine Salmon! Newcastle Salmon!

Yorkshire Cakes, who’ll buy Yorkshire Cakes? All piping hot – smoking hot! hot! hot!

Buy my Flowers, sweet Flowers, new-cut Flowers! New Flowers, sweet Flowers, fresh Flowers, O!

Buy green and large Cucumbers, Cucumbers, green and large, Cucumbers, twelve a penny!

Buy Rosemary! Buy Sweetbriar! Rosemary & Sweetbriar, O!

Come and buy my Walking Sticks or Canes! I’ve got them for young and old.

Buy my Cranberries! Fine Cranberries! Buy my Cranberries! Fine Cranberries!

Buy my fine Gooseberries! Fine Gooseberries! Threepence a quart! Ripe Gooseberries!

Pears for pies! Come feast your eyes! Ripe Pears, of every size, who’ll buy?

One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns!

Worcestershire Salt!

Buy Great Eels!

Buy Great Plaice!

Buy Great Smelts!
Buy Great Whiting!

Hats or Caps! Buy, Sell or Exchange!

Bread & Meat! Bread & Meat!

Hot fine Oatcakes! Hot fine Oatcakes!

Fine Oranges & Lemons! Oranges & Lemons!

I sweep your Chimney clean, O! Sweep your Chiney clean, O!

Buy my Diddle Dumplings, hot! hot! Diddle, diddle, diddle, Dumplings hot!

I have Hot Codlings, Hot Codlings!

You may also like to take a look at these other sets of the Cries of London I have collected

John Player’s Cries of London

More John Player’s Cries of London

Faulkner’s Street Cries

Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London

More Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London

Kendrew’s Cries of London

London Characters

Geoffrey Fletcher’s Pavement Pounders

William Craig Marshall’s Itinerant Traders

London Melodies

Henry Mayhew’s Street Traders

H.W.Petherick’s London Characters

John Thomson’s Street Life in London

Aunt Busy Bee’s New London Cries

Marcellus Laroon’s Cries of London

William Nicholson’s London Types

John Leighton’s London Cries

Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London

John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana of 1817

John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana II

John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana III

Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders

More of Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders

Victorian Tradesmen Scraps

Cries of London Scraps

New Cries of London 1803

Cries of London Snap Cards

Julius M Price’s London Types

Adam Dant’s  New Cries of Spittlefields

3 Responses leave one →
  1. August 9, 2014

    What kind of tastes and smells must have been there! Would like to give the hot fine Oatcakes a try…

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  2. August 9, 2014

    Lovely.
    What kind of offer is one a penny two a penny? Never understood it.

  3. Pauline Taylor permalink
    August 9, 2014

    I enjoy seeing these and I agree with you GA they look like 18th century woodcuts to me. The cucumbers look like the real thing, nothing like the long thin dark green ones that we see everywhere now, but real cucumbers are getting harder to find worse luck although I think that they are far superior.

Leave a Reply

Note: Comments may be edited. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS