Any discussion of what British food is — or at least was — must have at its heart the pie and mash shop (or “eel and pie house” as they were originally known). This sentiment is no truer than during National Pie and Mash Week.
And it’s an opinion shared by the MP for Basildon and Billericay Richard Holden who at the end of 2023 led a charge in Parliament to obtain Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status for pie and mash, akin to Welsh lamb or Stilton.
Holden claimed it was the “original fast food” and in many ways that assertion is spot on. At one time in Victorian London, circa 600 hawkers would walk about flogging meat-filled pies alongside a variety of hot gravies. But as meat prices rose in the 1840s, these “pie men” substituted beef for the lowest grade meat possible (horse, in some instances) and padded out the pies with oats to an unsuspecting public. This drastically lowered standards and caused uproar. Still, they only cost a penny.
The pie men are crucial to the history of the eel and pie house. After just a few years, East End shops cottoned on and began directly employing these hucksters to work in newly built restaurants, providing a sit down meal of larger, better quality meat or eel pies — later supplemented by jellied eels on the side — for the same price, with parsley sauce (liquor) and mashed potatoes.
Eels, pie and mash, as we know it today, was born.
Debate rages about the longest-serving pie and mash shop. While the Henry Blanchard fixture in east London was first founded in 1844, it no longer exists, and so now it’s more about the longest continual serving one. There’s Arments of Walworth, which was registered in 1881 but only purchased by the Arments family in 1914, and M Manze on Tower Bridge Road, which opened in 1902 and has always been in the same family. It still is to this day. We’re talking well over a century of tradition at both.
While recipes have hardly changed, the number of pie and mash shops has. Where once there were hundreds across town, now there are just 34 left in London. Most are found in the East End and in south London, though there’s a smattering elsewhere and outside town in places like Clacton and Stanford-le-Hope. A lot of old boys have left London for quieter climes and shops have followed them.
Housing and development crises in London have, as we know, precipitated a decline in traditional restaurants like this, not to mention taste — when was the last time you ate jellied eels? But they should be saved and savoured, revered for their shared history and celebrated for their commitment to value and tradition.
For a meat-filled pie, soft mash and a punchy parsley sauce — and to be very well-fed for under a tenner — here’s where to go.
Manze’s
Manze’s on Tower Bridge Road has been serving pie and mash for more than 120 years and the recipes remain the same. There, in the quiet stretch of London pocketed below what might be its most famous bridge, is tiled canteen with servers in green aprons, stirring hot liquor and handing out mugs of tea. It’s a delightful place frequented by the same regulars, celebrities, and tourists keen to examine a part of the city’s food culture. Why is the mash scooped onto the side of the plate? To keep the sauce from spilling over as full plates are ferried to tables, of course. How do you not know that?
87 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 4TW , manzepieandmash.com
Arments
The current owners are fourth generation pie and mash vendors, with Arments having served the Walworth and Camberwell community for almost 115 years. This is a spot for warming chilli vinegar and hot Sarsaparilla to go along with these wholesome pies. Arments take these pies exceptionally seriously. Like the best shops in town, they use two different types of pastry: one for the base (to ensure a soft-not-soggy bottom) and one for the top, designed to be golden and crisp.
7 Westmoreland Road, SE17 2AX, armentspieandmash.com
G Kelly
Kelly is one of those names (like Cooke, Arments and Manze) which is synonymous with pies in London. Open since 1915, Kelly’s was founded by Robert Samuel Kelly and later, his four children would each go on to open their own pie shops during the 20th century. George (one of Samuel’s sons) went on to inherit this particular shop in 1939, with his brother-in-law purchasing the business in the Fifties. These things are best kept in the family.
526 Roman Road, Old Ford, E3 5ES, gkelly.london
Castle’s
Families are an ever-present theme in the world of pie and mash shops and while the Castle’s won’t be as well known as the likes of Cooke or Manze, the name is no less deserving of recognition. Just off Camden road station, this is one of the most centrally located pie and mash shops in town: not consigned to the east or south, this is bang in the heart of the action. With a number of pie and mash shops under threat, Castle’s is still going strong, 90 years after it opened.
229 Royal College Street, NW1 9LT, 020 7485 2196
F Cooke
The enduring pie shops are invariably the ones with the best heritage, the longevity down to a combination of value and warmth. F Cooke’ has now spread as far as Chelmsford and at one time the wider family had half-a-dozen shops under its name. Now the business has settled and the Hoxton outpost has been serving N1 for the best part of 40 years, a track record any restaurateur would give their left arm for.
150 Hoxton Street, N1 6SH, fcookepieandmash.co.uk
Maureen’s
As always, the pies here are freshly prepared at the crack of dawn each day to ensure only the highest quality meat pies are served. Such high labour intensity for what is a relatively low sale price must be a contributing factor in why great pie and mash shops are few and far between. Anyway, Maureen’s is a classic and differentiates from other pie shops in keeping hot stewed eels on the menu, not to mention proper salt beef bagels, on the menu for well over 60 years.
6 Market Square, E14 6AH, maureenspieandmash.co.uk
Eastenders Pie and Mash
Next year will mark 50 years that Eastenders has been trading. Longevity in this game usually means simplicity and quality ingredients. Eels from Billingsgate, meat from Smithfield — for now, at least — and high quality potatoes to make the best mash. Before match games, the Poplar pie house is usually packed with savvy West Ham fans getting their fill before hopping on the DLR to the London Stadium.
171 East India Dock Road, E14 0EA, eastenderspieandmash.com
Cockney’s
Family-run for 37 years, Cockney’s in Notting Hill looks like one of the better options for pie and mash around west London. The staples are all present and accounted for: liquor, flaky pastry, meat pies, moulded plastic chairs. The point of difference really is the huge ice cream scoop of creamy mash that arrives with the order, and that this might just be the most affordable meal in W10.
314 Portobello Road, W10 5RU
