Whiteley's Folly by Linda Stratmann

Author:Linda Stratmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752495262
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Crowded as the Grove always is, it is so especially on a fine Saturday morning when all sorts and conditions of men women and children throng the pavement and the string of vehicles on the road makes crossing from one side to the other a dangerous feat. [the Grove’s] . . . air of gaiety and absence from dull care is unique in the metropolis. . . . . Saturday morning has become a regular institution for shopping . . . Young ladies’ schools broken up into small parties, prowl about Whiteleys and buy presents for each of their dearest friends on the principle of selecting a cheap article which looks expensive. The girls are not allowed to remain long in the dissipated whirlpool of the big shop, but have to meet by appointment under the clock at a much earlier hour than they like. To add to the general crush the larger and more massive is the mamma the larger the number of young hopefuls she drags about with her who seems [sic] to go to Whiteleys principally to eat buns, which they munch sans gêne as they walk about in the different departments. On Saturdays the shopwalkers at Whiteleys fired with the importance of the day, feel it their duty to be especially exasperating to the customers with their ceaseless ‘Which department now, Madam?’ In fact in their misdirected energy they often call out the question after a lady who has not replied, although anyone could see by her composed manner that she knew her way perfectly well. In the provision shop, of course, the crowd is dense. Here may be seen anxious ladies selecting fish for the family dinner and husbands and wives eagerly discussing whether some trifle or other should be bought, while the assistant behind the counter patiently awaits their decision; thrifty housekeepers wrangling over their accounts, and arguing that credit should be given for empties; boys eating tartlets with the rapacity peculiar to their age; mothers debating on the respective merits of sugar at 3d and 31⁄2d a pound; ladies with a good wholesome appetite repairing exhausted nature with the tempting lobster, roll and pat of butter, or oysters with accompaniments for 6d or sandwiches; all this refreshment looking very nice, but striking the observer as requiring something to wash it down.

In the street are vendors of flags and clockwork mice and the usual collection of wonderful articles manufactured and sold for a penny each and this gives the Grove the appearance of a fair. No-one seems to mind being jostled about and crushed. Between one and two people start to hurry home. Soon the shutters are up the street hawkers have departed, and by three o’clock the Grove is almost like a deserted village.6

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