The word “bummaree,” now much in the news, was also on many a Londoner’s lips 199 years ago, when the Lord Mayor issued an order trying to limit the activities of these porters. The origin of the word is obscure, and its spelling has varied, in those days it was a Billingsgate rather than a Smithfield title, and applied to a kind of middleman who bought fish from ships’ captains early in the morning and sold it to fishmongers.
In 1795, the Common Council was petitioned by the fishmongers to get rid of these wholesalers altogether. However, the City officials in the market, the Underwater Bailiff and the Yeoman of the Waterside, had no wish to eliminate the bummarees, who paid them 4d. a day per man for the hire of a site and planks on which to lay out their fish. Private citizens, who could buy salmon at 6d. a pound from the bummarees when the fishmongers charged 1s. 3d., also supported them.
There are now about 100 bummarees at Smithfield as against about 500 other licensed porters working for the transport companies. The porters earn about £10 a week. The bummarees earn at a rate of roughly 1s. 3d. a hundredweight of meat handled – a schedule which was agreed with the butchers. They probably earn something between the £15 which they admit to and £30 alleged by the butchers.
Pendennis diary item published on 22 January 1956
You can buy an archival-quality giclée print of the bummaree from our partner theprintspace
