This is the first scholarly treatment of the history of public eating in London in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The quotidian nature of eating out during the working day or evening should not be allowed to obscure the significance of the restaurant (defined broadly, to encompass not merely the prestigious West End restaurant, but also the modest refreshment room, and even the street cart) as a critical component in the creation of modern metropolitan culture. The story of the London restaurant between the 1840s and the First World War serves as an exemplary site for mapping the expansion of commercial leisure, the increasing significance of the service sector, the introduction of technology, the democratization of the public sphere, changing gender roles, and the impact of immigration. The London Restaurant incorporates the notion of 'gastro-cosmopolitanism' to highlight the existence of a diverse culture in London in this period that requires us to think, not merely beyond the nation, but beyond empire. The restaurant also had an important role in contemporary debates about public health and the (sometimes conflicting, but no less often complementary) prerogatives of commerce, moral improvement, and liberal governance. The London Restaurant considers the restaurant as a business and a place of employment, as well as an important site for the emergence of new forms of metropolitan experience and identity. While focused on London, it illustrates the complex ways in which cultural and commercial forces were intertwined in modern Britain, and demonstrates the rewards of writing histories which recognize the interplay between broad, global forces and highly localized spaces.

This book tells the story of what happens when an essentially Parisian institution travels and establishes itself in its neighbour’s capital city, bringing with it French food culture and culinary practices. The arrival and evolution of the French restaurant in the British capital is a tale of culinary and cultural exchange and of continuity and change in the development of London’s dining-out culture. Although the main character of this story is the French restaurant, this cultural history also necessarily engages with the people who produce, purvey, purchase and consume that food culture, in many different ways and in many different settings, in London over a period of some one hundred and fifty years. British references to France and to the French are littered with associations with food, whether it is desired, rejected, admired, loathed, envied, disdained, from the status of haute cuisine and the restaurants and chefs associated with it to contemporary concerns about food poverty and food waste, to dietary habits and the politicisation of food, and at every level in between. However, thinking about the place of the French restaurant in London restaurant and food culture over a long time span, in many and varied places and spaces in the capital, creates a more nuanced picture than that which may at first seem obvious.

'A rich, lively and nostalgia-provoking sensory experience ... this is history in its messiest, most bustling human essence' THE TIMES 'The queen of food historians' LUCY WORSLEY 'Annie Gray's fascinating history of a British institution in crisis illuminates and entertains' GREG JENNER 'Properly immersive, full of juicy sensory detail - Annie Gray's romp down British high streets through the centuries is a blast' TESSA BOASE Bustling with rich detail, historical vignettes and surprising wares, this is the story of Britain's best-loved but ever-changing public spaces. What makes a high street? It's certainly not just about the shopping; these thoroughfares are often the beating heart of our towns and cities and, by extension, of the people who use them. As spaces where local life and culture unfolds, our high streets can be playgrounds of personal indulgence and community spirit, or sites of contentious debate and politicking. Historian Annie Gray takes us down the street and through the ages, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts of the twentieth century. Peeping through the windows of tailors, tearooms and grocers, we explore everything from the toyshops of yesteryear - where curiosities were sold for adults, not children - to the birth of brands we shop at today. Vibrant and enticing, The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker is an essential reflection on how we shopped and lived in days gone by - and what the future may bring.

From its introduction to British society in the mid-17th century champagne has been a wine of elite celebration and hedonism. Champagne in Britain, 1800-1914 is the first book for over a century to study this iconic drink in Britain. Following the British wine market from 1800 to 1914, Harding shows how champagne was consumed by, branded for and marketed to British society. Not only did the champagne market form the foundations of the luxury market we know today, this book shows how it was integral to a number of 19th century social concerns such as the 'temperate turn', anxieties over adulteration and the increasingly prosperous British middle class. Using archival sources from major French producers such as Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Pommery & Greno alongside records from British distributors, newspapers, magazines and wine literature, Champagne in Britain shows how champagne became embedded in the habits of Victorian society. Illustrating the social and marketing dynamics that centered on champagne's luxury status, it reveals the importance of fashion as a driver of choice, the power of the label and the illusion of scarcity. It shows how, through the reach of imperial Britain, the British taste for Champagne spread across the globe and became a marker for status and celebration.

At the center of sweeping change to food retailing practices in Victorian and Edwardian England lies one man: John Pearce. An innovative businessman and a quintessential rags-to-riches success story, Pearce was at the forefront of the rise of the mass food market in London. With his catering company Pearce & Plenty, he fed millions of workers who wanted fast, nutritious, and tasty food. David W. Gutzke mines a wide range of primary sources to offer a portrait of a pivotal figure in London and a leader of the temperance catering movement who had “done more than can be readily recognised to render London a sober city.” By studying Pearce’s companies as well as those of his competitors, this book documents a half century of changing consumption habits in London.

The first history of the West End of London, showing how the nineteenth-century growth of theatres, opera houses, galleries, restaurants, department stores, casinos, exhibition centres, night clubs, street life, and the sex industry shaped modern culture and consumer society, and made London a world centre of entertainment and glamour.

Jeremy Black turns his trenchant eye to the development of English culture since the eighteenth century - how does it reflect political and social conditions of the time? Here, Black looks at this question while offering an important and original account of English history.