28 London Soup Shop
 

28 Extract from an account of a London soup shop

In April 1796, there being a deire of supplying the labourers on the Foundling estate, and the poor of the neighbourhood, with food at a cheaper rate, and in more plenty than they had been able to obtain it, I received a proposal for my opening a soup shop on the Foundling estate, from which the poor might be supplied by tickets with soup, pudding, and meat. A Rumford roaster, 16 and a  half inches wide, 12 inches high, and 32 inches deep, and 2 Rumford boilers, one of 35 gallons, and the other of 46 gallons, divided into two unequal parts were fitted up for me, under Count Rumford's
direction, by the gentleman who made the proposal. This was placed in my back kitchen, a room 11 feet by 13 feet, and was calculated to be sufficient for a daily supply of 400 persons. 
Previous to opening the shop, there were hand-bills printed,
announcing my situation, and my prices; which were as follows :-
for a mess of boiled beef and vegetables 3d ; for half a pound of rice plum pudding 1d ; and for a pint of pease soup 1d -.
* (Note) 
The price at which Hillyer sells his soup is much more than that at which it is supplied at the subscription soup shops; but there is a great difference between a soup shop, by the profits of which a man is to maintain himself and his family, and a soup shop, the expences of which are to be supported by a liberal subscription. 
The latter is an excellent and useful charity; but it requires a
constant and liberal support; the other, as will appear by Hillyer's account, may with a little attention, be established wherever it is wanted; and will not only maintain itself, but will give maintenance to a deserving family.

Three thousand tickets were prepared for these different articles at three shillings a dozen for the meat tickets; and one shilling a dozen for the others. With these advantages, and the purchase of as many tickets of me, as put me into a little ready cash, I opened my soup shop in the new colonnade, near the Foundling, on the 19th of May 1796. Among the best of my customers were the Irish labourers
who worked at the buildings on the Foundling estate; these men, with a pint and a half of the pease soup, and a half-penny worth of bread for breakfast, and the same quantity at dinner, which cost  them four pence a day, were equal to the hard labour, in which they were employed.

In making the soup, and indeed in dressing all the food, the Rumford kitchen enabled me to supply the public at a cheaper rate than I could otherwise have done, with profit to myself. - For some months my shop went on very well; but the progress of the buildings being gradually retarded, and at length greatly checked, by the war, my business insensibly diminished, many of my customers having gone into the sea service; so that at Lady-day 1797, with the approbation
of my friends, I moved to Fulwood's Rents, Holborn, a neighbourhood that promised me a regular and increased custom for my shop.

My business has in consequence greatly increased; and with still more advantages to me from my Rumford kitchen, which enabled me to extend it a great deal further, than I could in the common way of dressing. My average consumption of butcher's meat in my shop, is from 400 to 500 pounds weight a week; so that by the large quantities of meat (such as hams, beef, mutton etc.) boiled in the water, of which the pease soup is afterwards made, a considerable quantity of animal nourishment is added to the ordinary ingredients
of the soup, which are in themselves, and independent of that  addition, nutritious and wholesome. This makes the generality of customers prefer the soup to the pudding, except during summer; and as those who have penny tickets for soup or pudding, may always have which they please, the quantity of soup used is much greater than that of pudding.

The prices of the differnet articles to be had now at the shop, 
neat and of the best quality, are as follows :-
A mess of roast meat with vegetables 4d
A mess of boiled meat with vegetables 3d
A pint of leg of beef stew with meat 2d
A pint of soup 1d
Half a pound of pudding 1d
Bread .5d
Table beer .5d

For the best company there is a neat comfortable room, with tables properly set out, where any gentleman may order soup, boiled meat and vegetables, and plum pudding, the price of the whole dinner, including bread and beer being six-pence. If he has roast meet there is the addition of a penny; and if porter, three-farthings more.

Besides the quantity of soup daily made for tickets and chance customers, there are orders from the country, and for some public buildings, to a considerable amount. From one parish, that of Beddington in Surrey, there is a regular order for 32 gallons a week. This comes from a subscription of gentlemen, who find they can be supplied with it in this way better, and at less expence, than they can make it; and that the poor like it very much, and are extremely thanfful for it. I send this soup at 8d a gallon in casks of 16 gallons each, to the place in the Borough, from whence the waggon sets off; but where any subscription, or poor-house, or public body, orders a certain weekly quantity at a fixed hour,  and sends a cask or other vessel for it, it will be delivered at the reduced price of 7d a gallon. 

For the convenience of supplying the poor at the west end of the town, another soup shop is now opening opposite St Ann's Church Soho, where the poor in that, and the western parts of the town, may be supplied with tickets, issued in the same manner, as at Fulwood's Rents.

Observations :-
For the benefit of any persons, who may be induced to set up soup shops like the above, I hope I may be allowed to observe, that it is essential to the success and permanence of the shop, that the materials should be good of their kind, and wholesome; and that there should not only be apparent but real cleanliness in every part of the business. In order to make it answer, a Rumford Kitchen also appears to me to be necessary, for economy of food and labour as well as of fuel; and that, in using the fuel, the strictest limitation is requisite to prevent the increase of the quantity of coals; of which, if too much is used, there is not only a waste of
food and fuel, but the apparatus is very soon worn out.
I have only to add, that the real comfort with which the poor,
(whether they come with a ticket, or with a penny) enjoy their 
evening mess of soup, is to me a constant source of pleasure; and that I have the satisfaction of reflecting, that while I am making a comfortable provision for myself and my family, I am, in my humble station, contributing, in some degree, to the comfort  of my fellow creatures. 

Source:
The Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor. Vol 1 1798 446 pp
28 Extract from an account of a London soup shop. by 
William Hillyer. pp 205-212 dated 24th January 1798.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

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