“For here is the Bird Fair, and here are the animals of the forest and the jungle – the lion, the leopard, and the tiger – and here on any Sunday of the year you may be invited to ‘step inside’ and suit yourself with anything in the menagerie line that you may fancy – from a humming-bird to an elephant.”

– George R. Sims, ‘In Bethnal Green,’ from Off the Track in London (1911)

If you were to travel back in time, and direct yourself to 1960s Sclater Street on a cool Sunday in March, you would first notice that it was a very noisy place. Importantly, the noises would not be only human ones, but a discordant chorus of animal sounds. The nonhuman calls would range significantly, even though most of them would come from birds.

You would hear poultry—like chickens, turkeys, and ducks; songbirds—like canaries and linnets; and the trainable shoulder riders—like parrots, cockatiels, and parakeets. There would be mammals, too: dogs and cats of all shapes and sizes (even, on occasion, a tiger or lion cub!)

Some days, there would be marmosets or chimpanzees, dressed up in costumes, helping their stalls’ owners to sell the other animals (often in danger of being sold themselves!) The chirps and peeps of small birds in cages would provide a sort of staccato and clashing melody, drawn across the tenor and baritone of the larger dog breeds.

In addition, you would hear human sounds: the gleeful laughter and exclamations of children, requesting—and then begging—to take animals home; the quiet encouragement of their parents to just enjoy the time with the animals, and loudest of all would be the barking of the stall owners, exclaiming to you why the dog your eye had just landed on was a very special dog indeed. His eyes might be dripping, and his fur patchy, but the man would try his best to convince of the dog’s magical qualities.

“This pup came out the the Queen’s dog, ‘e did. E’s very special indeed. ‘E can speak three languages, and ‘e’s game to learn new ones. ‘Course, you don’t need to scold ‘im, ’cause ‘e’s a li’tle angel, ‘e is. But if you’re looking for a good conversator, look no further.” If you didn’t want a dog, he’d try to sell you something else. “Parakeet makes a good pie, if you aren’t keen on companionship. Better yet, buy a chicken, and you can ‘ave both.”

The market on Sclater Street developed as an extension of the very busy Club Row Market, which at its height stretched down three streets in East London. Historically, however, it’s been known by a number of different names – a hallmark of any street market that’s been around for a very long time.

Initially, it was simply Club Row Market, but you may have heard it referred to over the years as ‘Shoreditch Market’ (a reference to the neighborhood in which the market was held), ‘Sclater Street Market’ (so-called for the street on which the live animal market arose every Sunday), or ‘Brick Lane Market’ (itself an extension of the original Club Row Market, but the name by which the market is known to this day).

Technically speaking, Sclater Street is located within what is now known as the Weavers Ward in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, but most people know the more immediate neighbourhood of the market as East Shoreditch.[1]

The live animal sales in Club Row probably began around the early 1800s. The introduction of animals into the market was the product of a convergence of events. On one hand, in response to the city authorities’ decision to try to raise revenue by taxing those coming through the gates to sell at Smithfield Market, farmers from East London and Essex had begun to trade just outside the city gates.[2]

The farmers camped overnight at London Fields, standing up impromptu stalls on Club Row, which at the time extended beyond the city gates into London Fields.[3] In addition to this, the influx of French Huguenots—who had an affinity for songbirds—created a new trend of brightening otherwise dark districts and homes with the color and music of caged birds.

From 1670 to 1710, French Huguenot weavers immigrated en masse to London–largely to the Tower Hamlets area – in response to the religious persecution they had suffered for being Protestant in a very Catholic France.[4] The Huguenots brought with them a significant talent for weaving and an enviable work ethic, which “had a massive influence on the Industrial Revolution”.[5] Once settled, the Huguenots influenced British culture further by introducing the practice of keeping songbirds as pets, and sometime in the late 18^th century, they began selling birds to the greater public in Club Row. [6]

You can still see their impact in the area, where a few of their beautiful homes have been well preserved – with their large attic windows, also known as “long lights,” or “weaver’s windows,” built to bring in more light with which to see fine weaving details. [7] To this day, you can imagine what it was like when there was a birdcage in every window, and even on the roofs.

The Huguenots in London are believed to have been the first self-proclaimed political refugees.^[8] While their weaving businesses did much initially to bring jobs to the poor Tower Hamlets neighbourhoods, their success was unfortunately temporary, and the silk business met a slow but steady decline throughout the 18^th century. In the 1730s, Irish linen makers joined the Huguenot weavers in Shoreditch, having themselves experienced a depression in sales at home.^[9] This successive influx of two populaces with similar businesses and dissimilar temperaments, thrown together at a time when the market for their fabric wares were in decline, led to riots and protests in the streets.^[10] Things went downhill from there.

By the end of the 19^th century, the area around Club Row had become a very bleak place. The Huguenots had moved out of the area and otherwise assimilated, replaced by Jewish immigrants who opened tailoring and shoe making businesses.[11] It did not benefit from new businesses at that point, however, and crime rates soared. It became known as an area where even policemen were afraid to travel alone, and in 1901, an article in the Daily Mail suggested that not far from Club Row, there was a street in which there was a murder committed on a monthly basis.[12] Yet the market’s weekly business in live animal sales—particularly birds—flourished.

In part, owning songbirds had simply become a fashionable thing to do, especially in Victorian England.[13] However, there was also a direct link between the poorest neighbourhoods and a fascination with songbirds in cages. Charles Booth, who was known for his creation of maps of London that indicated the economic status of any given block in the Capitol, was known for having observed that caged singing birds were most prevalent in the black streets—those which were the poorest in the city.[14]

Ironically, it was around the time that songbirds were becoming so popular in London’s poorest neighbourhoods that a generic term was coined for those same slums in London: the Rookeries (including Old Nichol, the name given to the rookery around Club Row).[15] The name derived from the rook, a member of the crow family, perhaps for the way in which the birds were known to nest in large, noisy groups.[16] So while the songs of caged birds brought some solace—perhaps even joy—to the poorest Londoners, it was likely done at the cost of creating bleaker lives for the birds.

It was during this time that bird fanciers and animal rights advocates began to protest against the sale of live animals—particularly birds—in street markets. In James Greenwood’s 1874 book, The Wilds of London, he describes the business of selling songbirds on the street as “amazing….not only did the imprisoned and much-hustled finches continue to exist under such circumstances, but they retained perches and equanimity in the most perfect manner, and sang as they were carried.”[17] Criticism was aimed at the practice of keeping certain wild birds as pets, with one article claiming that if you purchased a nightingale, ‘it still had to be treated “affectionately and lovingly waited on, otherwise they [would] fall silent – “their hearts soon broken.”[18]

The Wild Bird Protection Act of 1872 and the Wild Bird Protection Act of 1880 developed prohibitions on the taking of wild birds during a close season, as well as prohibiting the taking of wild bird eggs at any time.[19] These protections were developed in part due to pressure that had been brought to bear on Parliament by the Society for the Protection of Birds, which became the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in 1889. The RSPB quickly pout forward a campaign aimed at entirely ending the collections of wild birds and their eggs.[20] This led to the Wild Bird Protection Act of 1902, which allowed for the confiscation of birds and eggs taken illegally under the earlier act.[21]

This was not the end of efforts undertaken by conservation and animal rights groups to end the sale of wild birds and other animals. In 1933, the ongoing efforts of these groups led to the 1933 Protection of Birds Act, which prohibited the taking, possession, or sale of 66 specific species of birds. Because the law was difficult for the government to enforce, the Association of Bird Watchers and Wardens was created and tasked with watching nests and guarding birds and their eggs from illegal take.[22] Although these efforts didn’t eliminate the illegal take of wild birds, it did improve things enough that the focus shifted to the practices of sellers of all types of pets in street markets.

Unfortunately, things did not improve much for the animals on sale in Club Row following the passage of that handful of wild bird protection laws. In her 1936 book, Street Markets of London, Mary Benedetta described 1930s Club Row as a place that was still miserable for at least some of the animals who were looking for homes. “….In spite of the dingy street and the rough crowd surging round, the birds still twitter prettily the whole morning. Here and there a moulting parrot sits gloomily on its perch, looking as though it was just waiting to die.”[23]

By 1950, the sellers on Sclater Street had shifted their emphasis from birds to dogs and cats. Given that most of the complaints and legislation prior to that point had focused on the plight of birds in cages, it may have seemed safer to focus on the mammals. Around that time, the market stopped being the “bird market,” and became the “dog market.”[24]

A shift in protests followed suit. In March, 1950, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA, which had in turn taken over for the bird focussed groups) made regular sweeps of the market with the police, which made sellers very nervous.[25] In an attempt to finally solve the problem, Parliament passed the Pet Animals Act of 1951, which required that only those with licensed freestanding pet stores could sell live animals as pets.[26]

Club Row sellers were tenacious, however, and despite passage of the Pet Animals Act, most kept selling animals on Sclater Street every Sunday. One protester in a 1980 newspaper article summed up activists’ concerns: “many [of the animals] are sick and are kept in tiny cages and die soon after being sold. The market is a relic of a bygone era, reminiscent of bull-baiting and cock fighting“.[27]

In a meeting between activists, including the RSPCA, and the Tower Hamlets Council in 1982, live animal sales in the borough were given a final expiration date: no more licenses would be granted for animal sales in the Borough after July of 1983.[28] The decision drove the final nail in the coffin of the Club Row animal sales, putting an end to a memorable era in London history.

 Shoreditch (in the area of the live animal market) today:

Read this post and other stories on Mary’s personal blog

Photo credits as cited. Non-cited photos are author’s original work.

[1] Area Profiles, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets Council, http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgsl/901-950/916_borough_profile/area_profiles.aspx

[2] Kevin Perlmutter, London Street Markets, Wildwood House Ltd. (1983) at 12.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Peter Watts, London’s Huguenots, 9 July 2014 on The Great Wen: A London Blog, at http://greatwen.com/2014/07/09/londons-huguenots/

[5] Ibid. (Quoting Lucy Ingis, Georgian London).

[6] BBC Immigration and Emigration, The World in a City, at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/legacies/immig_emig/england/london/article_1.shtml

[7] Spitalfields, http://www.maps.thehunthouse.com/Spitalfields/Spitalfields.htm

[8] Peter Watts, London’s Huguenots, 9 July 2014 on The Great Wen: A London Blog.

[9] Stephen Halliday, London’s Markets from Smithfield to Portobello Road, The History Press (2014) p138-39.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Paul Morris, A Toby in the Lane: A History of London’s East End Markets, The History Press (2014) p 155. (Citing a 1895 article in New Budget magazine, entitled “Down east on Sunday among the birds and bird-fanciers.”)

[14] Alec Forshaw and Theo Bergström, Markets of London: A Complete Guide with Maps and Photographs (1983) p 116.

[15] Richard Guard, Lost London: an A-Z of Forgotten Landmarks and Lost Traditions, Michael O’Mara Books (2012).

[16] Ibid.

[17] Victorian cage-bird fanciers of Brick Lane, 06 March 2012, quoting Greenwood. Available at: http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/survey/post/victorian_cage-bird_fanciers_of_brick_lane/

[18] Hannah Velten, Beastly London: a History of Animals in the City, Reaktion Books (2013) p 197 (quoting William Kidd, ‘Domestic Pets – the Nightindgale,’ National Magazine (April 1857) p 416.

[19] Ted Williamson, An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650-1950, Bloomsbury (2013) p 156.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.

[22] David Evans, A History of Nature Conservation in Britain, Routledge (2002), p 49.

[23] Mary Benedetta, Street Markets of London, John Miles Ltd. (1936), p 100.

[24] Morris at p 156-57.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Pet Animals Act of 1951, available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/14-15/35.

[27] Morris at p 160, quoting an East London Advertiser article from 11 July 1980.

[28] Parliament referenced the Tower Hamlets Council decision in their debate over an amendment to the 1951 Pet Animals Act, which had left a loophole that arguably allowed street sales of live pets to continue. That amendment passed, and the debate can be found at: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1983/mar/11/pet-animals-act-1951-amendment-bill-hl.

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Latest posts by merolle (see all)

• Hootenanny in the Highlands - September 1, 2015
• The Caged Birds of London: A Brief History of the Club Row Live Animal Market - July 1, 2015
• A Vegan Take on the V&A’s Alexander McQueen Retrospective - June 25, 2015