3-011-723 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Cotton Famine: working men's dining-hall, Gaythorn cooking-depot, Manchester, 1862. Meals for unemployed Lancashire mill workers. 'Before the present trying times there was felt to be a great want of dining-places for the working classes of Manchester, and the distress has increased the want twentyfold...The food provided [here] is both good and cheap, and is dispensed at cost price. The rooms have been fitted up with very great care for the comfort and convenience of the working classes...The principal room will seat 300 at a time, and arrangements will admit of providing three times that number with three meals during the day. The breakfast commences at eight a.m...A cup of milk may be had for ½d.; and a bowl of porridge, a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, and bread and butter, each for 1d. For dinner, which is brought on the table from twelve at noon to three p.m., there is supplied a bowl of broth, a bowl of soup, plate of potatoes, bread and cheese, the charge for each being 1d.; for 2d. a plate of cold beef may be had...For one penny a cup of coffee or tea is provided, and bread and butter may be had at the same price...On one day twelve hundred persons, mostly working men, were served with dinner between twelve and two o'clock'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.