Comments on: The Cries Of London

By: Ian Hunt

Ian Hunt — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 07:23:44 +0000

Thank you for this wonderful collection of Street Cries. The poet Marjorie Welish published, in 1991, a group of poems called ‘Some Street Cries’ — in The Windows Flew Open. Her own variations on this extraordinfary form of public poetry — here’s part of one:

Give a sphere new life
by ruling it with lines of evergreen
I promise you ink that branches and conceives!
I promise you all of utility!
I promise you black freshets and gray,
a few drops are all you need, ladies!

By: Tarra

Tarra — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 15:16:21 +0000

Wonderful peek into the distant past, so glad to find this

By: Nick Basden

Nick Basden — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:06:36 +0000

Do you know if the dust was brick dust?

By: Classof65

Classof65 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 00:30:20 +0000

Wish someone would come sharpen my knives today! Or that I had a woven chair that needed mending… wouldn’t it be fun to watch someone repair our chair?

Two hundred years ago someone put this pamphlet away for safe-keeping. Wish they had known how much we would appreciate their action.

By: Jenny Atkins

Jenny Atkins — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 21:47:01 +0000

In the early 1970’s I livd on the Isle of Dogs for a few years. Even then the knife grinder still came around with his small portable grinder singing in a lovely song song voice, “Any knives to grind, get your scissors sharpened”. I can still hear him now.

By: Hasenschneck

Hasenschneck — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 21:54:03 +0000

I remember an old bloke going around mending chairs when I was a child in the mid sixties. And, of course, the rag and bone man shouting ‘Any old iron?’ from a horse drawn cart. My favourite of these criers is the dustman because the name lingers on even in these days of recycling. A wonderful find.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 21:31:01 +0000

Oh my goodness, this is the best yet! — not only are images full of life, but the language is sprightly too.
Being on the New England seacoast, I love the notion of walking around with a basket of lively lobsters on my head.

By: Annie

Annie — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:23:07 +0000

I concur about the lobster hat! Plus the man wearing all the old clothes at once. I wonder if this was something to teach children to read? It is charming and poignant. And elegant. Thank you for sharing this treasure.

By: Deborah Fyrth

Deborah Fyrth — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:41:00 +0000

Utterly charming. I remember my Grandad reciting this ditty:
Old chairs to mend, old chairs to mend
If I’d all the money I could spend
I wouldn’t cry old chairs to mend

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 14:48:46 +0000

I remember as a small boy hearing the ‘rag and bone’ man call out from his horse and cart. On a recent trip to old town Dhaka in Bangladesh I heard lots of different cries from individuals selling or offering services.