F Cooke's Eel, Pie and Mash Shop, Broadway Market

Summary

Eel, pie and mash shop, opened 1900 and refitted in the 1930s. The shop forms part of a mid-C19 terrace with residential accommodation above.

Reasons for Designation

F Cooke's eel, pie & mash shop, 9 Broadway Market, London, opened in 1900 and refitted in the 1930s, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a typical and attractive example of a highly distinctive London building type, with an exceptionally complete 1930s interior.

Historic interest:

* as a well-preserved example of a type of establishment, and a type of cuisine, that formed a staple of early-C20 working-class life, and remains a distinctive, albeit increasingly rare, presence on the high streets of the capital today.

History

London's eel, pie and mash shops are descended from the strolling piemen who for centuries had provided the capital with one of its staple sources of cheap street food. The eels - served jellied or hot - were caught in the Thames, where they were once plentiful, and also imported live from the Fens and from Holland. 'Liquor', a type of parsley sauce, comprises the fourth canonical ingredient. The first documented pie shop was opened on Union Street in Southwark in 1844, and in 1851 Henry Mayhew records the complaints of street piemen that 'the penny pie shops...have now got mostly all the custom, as they make the pies much larger for the money than those sold on the street'. By 1874 there were 33 such shops listed in the London trade directories, rising to more than 100 by the mid-C20. The shops usually operated both as takeaways and as eat-in restaurants, and followed a standard design formula of tiled and mirrored interiors with marble-topped tables in high-backed seating booths. Later in the century, the availability of other forms of fast food and the dispersal of inner London's established working-class communities led to a slow decline in trade; there are estimated to be only about 30 traditional shops still in existence, mainly concentrated in the East End and inner south-east.

The Cooke’s eel, pie and mash business is the oldest of the main London family chains (the later Manze and Kelly chains being the other key names in the East End). The business was established in the 1860s, with the first recorded shop operating from Nile Street, in 1865 and run by Charles Cooke. The business was taken up by Robert Cooke, London's most successful eel pie shop entrepreneur of the late C19, who opened several new shops in the East End in the 1890s and 1900s in addition to importing live eels for other suppliers. The Broadway Market shop was opened in 1900, trading under the name 'F Cooke'. In 1910, another shop on Kingsland High Street was added to the chain (this now listed Grade II; National Heritage List for England 1235868). By 1939 the Cooke’s operated five shops which were, in the 1930s, given a distinctive commercial identity; the shops fitted-out in a uniform style with marble tables and counters, simple wooden benches, terrazzo flooring, stained-glass windows and white-tiled walls with inset mirror panels, as can all be seen at Broadway Market.

Later in the C20, the back of the shop was extended out to accommodate the existing kitchen block (possibly at the same time as the internal 1930s remodelling). During the Second World War, the shopfront suffered bomb damage which enforced a period of closure and the replacement of the fascia and much of the glazing.

Details

Mid-C19 terraced building with commercial unit to street with residential accommodation above. The eel, pie & mash shop was opened in 1900, with the present internal arrangement and fittings introduced in the 1930s.

MATERIALS: stock brick with stone dressings and tiled piers and marble stall risers to the glazed hardwood shopfront. Tiled interior with terrazzo floor and fittings of timber and marble.

PLAN: the building occupies a narrow commercial plot on the west side of Broadway Market. The whole of the ground floor is occupied by the dining room and kitchen, and the upper two floors contain domestic accommodation (not inspected).

EXTERIOR: renovated shop front of central part-glazed doors with overlight flanked by large sashes with metal handles, set above marble risers, for the dispensing and display of eels and pies. A gold lettered fascia is between original brackets with an original retractable awning beneath and four replica brass spotlight lamps above. To the first and second floors there are pairs of sash windows with gauged brick arches and keystones; segmental arches to the first floor and flat-arched heads to the second storey. Above this is a simple rendered parapet with a painted sign that reads: “F. COOKE EST. 1862 Trading from this premises since 1900”.

INTERIOR: the shop and restaurant occupies most of the ground floor. The walls here are clad in glazed white and cream tiles with a frieze and borders of mottled navy and light blue tiles, which pick out a series of inset rectangular mirrors. The floor is of white and grey terrazzo with black tramline borders to the counter and walls. To the right of the entrance is the main serving area, with a tiled counter which has a marble counter-top and shelves. To either side of the central doors there are small enclosures with marble counters with channels to drain water; these counters having originally been used to display fresh eels on ice. The rest of the space is occupied by a series of seating booths set at right-angles to the wall. The low benches have wooden backs and seats with steel legs; between each pair of benches is a marble-topped table, supported on the wall at one end and by a steel upright at the other. At the back of the restaurant (west end wall) there is a leaded, stained-glass window with an Art Deco sunburst motif (south side) and, to the north side, there is a door through to the kitchens (not inspected). The upper floors, which are accessed from the rear of the building, are in residential use (not inspected).

Sources

Books and journals
Clunn, C, Hewitt, P, Eels, Pie and Mash, (1995), 18-36
Pie & Mash Club of Great Britain, , Pie 'n' mash: a guide to Londoners' traditional eating houses, (1995)

End of official list entry

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