FOOD EATEN BY THE LOWER CLASSES

The food eaten by the lower and working classes make for heart-rending reading. A typical Street-Irish breakfast was a dish of potatoes, coffee and a slice of bread, or a herring (a 'cheaper' fish) and potatoes, and two slices of bread and butter and a cup of tea for breakfast. Coffee stalls dotting the East End supplied a warm breakfast and "Rice-milk" girls, who tramped up and down the streets, with urns of boiled rice, sold with white liquid with sugar, browned with allspice.