3-021-643 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The People's Market, Whitechapel, [east London] 1868. '...the establishment, at 272, Whitechapel-road, opened...for the sale by retail, at moderate prices, of good meat, vegetables, and other necessary commodities, to the working-class population of that district...The market is lighted at night by two large sunlights, which serve the purposes at once of illumination and ventilation; and on each side of the building is a row of louvre windows, which may be opened in warm weather...the stalls or shops run round the building, one row upon the ground floor and the other in a gallery above; the area is devoted to the sale of butcher's meat, vegetables, fruit, milk, soup, and cooked meat; and the gallery, which is very spacious, running round the entire building, is divided into compartments for the sale of groceries and Italian stores, cheesemongery, bread and flour, corn-chandlery, boots and shoes, and books and periodicals. Another department of the business here, which must be a great boon to the poor, is the sale of very good soup, at 2d. a quart. The soup, which can be drunk on the premises, is served from twelve to two, and from seven to nine o'clock at night; and as many as from 500 to 600 poor people daily enjoy their pennyworth of soup'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.