The Soho Bazaar 1815-1885

When John Trotter, who had made a fortune supplying the Army during the recent war, opened The Soho Bazaar in 1815, he could not have known that he was creating a whole new shopping experience. He had merely an unused warehouse to fill with some sort of business, and he had a praiseworthy desire to assist the widows and daughters of Army officers killed in the Napoleonic War.

His warehouse, a substantial 300 by 150 feet, stood at the north-west corner of Soho Square. In it, he rented counter space--standings--to about 150 vendors at 3 pence per foot per day. Below is Soho Square in 1816 from Papworth's Views of London:

The Soho Bazaar was a benevolent exercise offering respectable women an opportunity to sell whatever fancy goods they could make in their homes. There was a certain stigma attached to public selling, and the righteous were quick to see opportunity for moral turpitude in the retail trade. In fact a ballad was published by printer James Calnach, deriding the leisured classes who frequented the Bazaar.

The Soho Bazaar

Ladies in furs and gemmen in spurs,
Who lollop and lounge about all day:
The Bazaar in Soho is completely the go--
Walk into the shop of Grimaldi!
Come from afar, here's the Bazaar!--
But if you won't deal with us, stay where you are."

But the majority of the public were supportive of the venture, and the popularity of the Bazaar was evidenced by the carriages that thronged the Square. Supporters like Joseph Nightingale "envisioned bazaars as the perfect mixture of capitalism and charity..." and one William Jerdan wrote a letter to the New Monthly Magazine. He declared the bazaar to help "a multitude of persons who have heretofore been condemned to penury and hopelessness by the insuperable difficulties and equally insuperable delicacies of their situation". The lady retailers were required to wear plain and modest clothes, there was a matron overseeing the whole, and unusually for the time, prices were fixed and marked on the product. The Gentlemen's Magazine remarked that the premises were "large, dry, commodious, well lighted, warmed, ventilated, and properly watched".

Goods sold in the early years included hats, reticules, lace, shawls, and toys; later the Bazaar included bookshops and bakeries and more. La Belle Assemblee, the famed ladies' periodical, published a news item regarding the Bazaar in 1826:

The Soho Bazaar

Possibly it may be information to some of the readers of La Belle Assemblee to state that, in consequence of the increased attendance of company, and of the increased demand for standings, at this place of fashionable resort, an additional suite of rooms has been opened up-stairs. This bazaar is well entitled to the patronage it enjoys, were it only for the support which it affords to young and respectable women.

An interesting sidelight to the Soho Bazaar is that famed artist, J.M.W. Turner, was attending school at the Soho Academy also in the Square. He was a frequenter of the Bazaar, and was quoted thus:

"As a boy, I used to lie for hours on my back watching the skies, and then go home and paint them; and there was a stall in Soho Bazaar where they sold drawing materials, and they used to buy my skies. They gave me 1s6d for the small ones and 3s6d for the larger ones."

The Soho Bazaar spawned a great fashion for bazaars (the name came from the Turkish with Italian intervention) and by 1830 there were many throughout London. One of the most famous was the Pantheon Bazaar, below as the building appeared in 1816 when it was still in use as an assembly room.

Then in the 1830's it was transformed and below is its appearance in 1845:

There is no drawing extant of the Soho Bazaar but I like to think it must have been somewhat similar, at least, to the Pantheon, with the great pillars of the warehouse rising above the selling floor. In June 1816 George Cruickshank issued a caricature entitled 'A Bazaar'--it was rife with references to the supposed negative and injurious aspects of such establishments.

Nevertheless charity bazaars proliferated throughout the 19th century, but excepting only that of the "Ladies Royal Benevolent Society" who began their charity fancy sales in 1813, the Soho Bazaar was the first. And it continued until 1885--a good run by any standards.

 Join us next week when multi-published author Ginny McBlain joins us to discuss "The Legendary 95th Rifles". Ginny is an author of contemporary romance. At present she is meeting a new challenge—writing a historical set in the wonderful world of the Regency. Her work-in-progress, Honor Bound, is set against the backdrop of the Peninsular War.

Ginny is a pioneer in the field of electronic publishing. Her first e-book, Heart Broken, Heart Whole, was released in 1996. Both Bear Hugs and Faith, Hope and Charity were finalists in the EPPIE contest. She has served in writing organizations in many capacities, including first President of EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Connection and the first EPIC conference chair.

Ginny’s books are available from Awe-Struck Publishing, and Uncial Press,  in a variety of electronic formats. Visit her web site, www.ginnymcblain.com.

I hope you can join us. 'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

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Sources:

• Dyer, Gary R. "The Vanity Fair of Nineteenth Century England." Nineteenth Century Literature, vol. 46 no. 2 (Sept. 1991): 196-222.
• Prochaska, F. K. "Charity Bazaars in Nineteenth-Century England." Journal of British Studies, vol. 16 no. 2 (Spring, 1977): 62-84.
  
• Hindley, Charles. Life and Times of James Calnach. 1878.
• Knight, Charles. London. 1851.
• Whitlock, Tammy C. Crime, Gender and Consumer Culture in 19th Century England. Ashgate, 2005.
• "The Soho Bazaar." BBC h2g2 Entry. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A684434

Oh, I love a book sale!

I've been to a book sale! Used books, I must admit--no author royalties paid unfortunately--the only down-side to an otherwise sublime experience. What is better than three or four hours spent trawling among shelves and shelves of books? And if the money didn't go to the authors, at least it went to a good charity--our local symphony society.

I started the afternoon by finding a biography of George IV--our own Prinny--by Joanna Richardson. I had not come across this bio before; it is titled 'George the Magnificent' with a copyright of 1966. It should prove interesting in relation to the other biographies of the Prince Regent in my collection.

I moved on to discover a Penguin book--'The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier'. This is a memoir by a German conscript Jakob Walter, and looks very interesting. So little first person information is available about the common soldier of the era; it was satisfying find.

Then I found several nice little hardcovers of Jane Austen's work which will probably end up as prizes in my website contest. Likewise a good fresh used copy of the 1995 out of print book 'Landscapes of Britain'.

A real treat was a lovely hardcover titled 'Beningfield's English Villages'. Gordon Beningfield's luminous paintings are an inspiration and a joy.

"Great British Families' by Debrett's has some excellent illustrations, and with chapter titles like 'New Men' and 'Whig Magnates' promises good reading. 'Victorian and Edwardian London'  by A. R. Hope Moncrieff, although not Regency-related, looks packed with information. I paid $3 for it; I think that was a good deal! Nearly everything was only $1-$2, only a little more for extra special finds.

Loosely related to the Regency were my purchases of "Disraeli" by Stanley Weintraub; a massive tome of some 700 pages that looks terrific, and a 1953 edition of Washington Irving's 'The Sketch Book'. To round out my historical reading, I found--illustrative of the other periods of history that interest me--'A Medieval Family: The Pastons of 15th century England' by Frances and Joseph Gies and, 'In a Gilded Cage: From Heiress to Duchess' by Marian Fowler about the American heiresses who married British aristocrats in the late 19th century.

I've only recently discovered Canadian author Marian Fowler. I highly recommend her biographies, all written in the 1980's and 90's. I don't know if she is still writing, but her work is delightful--impeccably researched and sparkling prose. I just finished 'Below the Peacock Fan' about the ladies of the British Raj, and discovered that I have her biography of 'Blenheim'--yes, the house--on my shelves.

My purchasing was rounded off with a couple of novels by some favourite contemporary authors of mine, Erica James and Katie Fforde. I bought a book called "Cross-Stitch Florals" though I don't have time to undertake another project. If I do though, these ones are great! I got a book of Edward Thomas' poetry and discovered a series called the 'Small Oxford Books' which is delightful. I bought their 'Hotels and Inns', 'The Country House', and 'The Pleasures of the Table'. Each book is a compilation of quotes, from all eras of history, about the title topic. Great bed-time reading!

'The Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs' from 1977 completed my purchases. This is a very funny book and does relate to the Regency or at least the Georgian era with this offering from Walter Savage Landor:

The Georges
George the First was always reckoned
Vile, but viler George the Second;
And what mortal ever heard
Any good of George the Third?
When from earth the Fourth descended
(God be praised!) the Georges ended.

It was a great day at the book sale. My purse is empty and my book shelves are full so it's fortunate that it comes only once a year. But I have reading material now until it comes around again. Oh, wait, there is the University Women's Book Sale in the autumn...hmmmmm.....

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

The Ladies' Fashionable Repository

One of the less well-known and seldom-mentioned Regency magazines for ladies was The Ladies' Fashionable Repository published from 1809-1829. Yet, I find it to be one of the most entertaining and, indeed, one of the most useful of the popular journals of the day. I cannot discover much information about it; its founder calls it a 'pocket-book' and it seems to have appeared bi-monthly in its first years rather than weekly or monthly.

In the end analysis, The Ladies' Fashionable Repository turned out to be one of the longest lived of the ladies' magazines, but it underwent several changes. From 1829-1834, the founder and publisher J. Raw added his name to the title. Then, from 1837, the magazine became Pawsey's Ladies' Fashionable Repository and continued in publication for the next sixty-eight years.

Its contents were varied. It particularly emphasized puzzles, charades, conundrums, rebuses and riddles--the activities much enjoyed by a pre-TV, pre-computer game society. I think I will devote another post to those items of recreation!

The magazine accepted new poetry by both known and unknown authors. Walter Scott contributed "The Violet" in about 1814:

"The violet, in her green-wood bower,
Where birchen boughs with hazles mingle,
May boast itself the fairest flower
In glen or copse or forest dingle."

Not his greatest work perhaps--it continues for two more stanzas--but charming.

Intermingled with such poetic gems were solidly useful items.
Here is an excerpt from the tables of the new window tax:

Likewise, below is a excerpt from an entry on the house duty and taxes on servants:

The charges levied by hackney chairmen took two pages, here is a portion of it::

One issue, circa 1814, included an absolutely delightful 'song' titled "Hyde Park on a Sunday". It has an immediacy that brings the world of the Regency to life, and makes it understandable and very close to contemporary with our own world.

It continues for two pages, politically incorrect for our times, but otherwise remarkably timely.

In another issue, a poem disguised as a letter purporting to be true fact, about Bath and its assemblies includes these lines:

"In Bath, dear Eliza, what pleasures abound!
Where we skip all the night to the violin's sound;
Where beauties unnumber'd hold absolute sway,
Whose charms shed a lustre that rivals the day."

 Every issue of the journal held a plate of a stately home and a description of the property and its owner. These were not always the huge palaces of the nobility but the smaller houses of the lesser aristocracy, many of which no longer exist. Here is Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, seat of Lord Dysart, from 1809:

In the introductory issue, J. Raw used a technique that is still often employed to draw in customers and reward faithful readers. He held a contest, and the prize was future issues of The Ladies' Fashionable Repository. And he sees fit to thank his patrons for their purchase of his product:

We can only thank him for publishing a magazine that has survived these two hundred years and brings us a view of Regency life that is at once different yet very familiar to us.

'Til next time,

Lesley-Anne