Editing Costermonger (section)

==Coster culture and style==
Costers developed their own culture; notoriously competitive, respected "elder statespeople" in the costermonger community could be elected as [[Pearly Kings and Queens|pearly kings and queens]] to keep the peace between rival costermongers.<ref>coChesney, Kellow, ''The Victorian Underworld'', Penguin, 1970, pp 43–56; 97–98.</ref> However, crimes such as theft were rare among costermongers, especially in an open market where they tended to look out for one another. Even common thieves preferred to prey on shop owners rather than costers, who were inclined to dispense ''[[vigilante|street justice]]''.<ref>Chesney, Kellow 1970. ''The Victorian Underworld''. Penguin. p. 50</ref>

London based costermongers had their own [[dress code]]. In the mid-nineteenth century, men wore long [[waistcoat]]s of sandy coloured [[corduroy]] with buttons of [[brass]] or shiny [[Nacre|mother of pearl]]. Trousers, also made of corduroy, had the distinctive [[Bell-bottoms|bell-bottomed]] leg. Footwear was often decorated with a motif of roses, hearts and [[thistle]]s. [[Neckerchief]]s—called king's men—were of green [[silk]] or red and blue.<ref name="sullivan" /> Covent Garden's flower sellers were immortalised in [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]''.<ref>Roderick Floud, "An Economic History of the English Garden", Penguin UK, 2019</ref>

Henry Mayhew gave a detailed description of the costermonger's attire:

{{blockquote|"The costermonger's ordinary costume partakes of the durability of the warehouseman's, with the quaintness of that of the stable-boy. A well-to-do 'coster,' when dressed for the day's work, usually wears a small cloth cap, a little on one side. A close-fitting worsted tie-up skull-cap, is very fashionable, just now, among the class, and ringlets at the temples are looked up to as the height of elegance. Hats they never wear—excepting on Sunday—on account of their baskets being frequently carried on their heads. ... Their waistcoats, which are of a broad-ribbed corduroy, with fustian back and sleeves, being made as long as a groom's, and buttoned up nearly to the throat. If the corduroy be of a light sandy colour, then plain brass, or sporting buttons, with raised fox's or stag's heads upon them—or else black bone- buttons, with a lower-pattern—ornament the front; but if the cord be of a dark rat-skin hue, then mother-of-pearl buttons are preferred. Two large pockets—sometimes four—with huge flaps or lappels, like those in a shooting- coat, are commonly worn. ... The costermonger, however, prides himself most of all upon his neckerchief and boots. Men, women, boys and girls, all have a passion for these articles. ... The costermonger's love of a good strong boot is a singular prejudice that runs throughout the whole class."<ref>Henry Mayhew, ''London Labour and the London Poor'', 1851</ref>}}

Costers were especially fond of mother-of-pearl buttons. Men decorated the legs of their trousers with a line of pearly buttons. By the 19th century, both men and women began adding these ''pearly buttons'' to their clothing as James Greenwood describes:

{{blockquote|"Any one, however, who knew the significance of; and took into consideration the extraordinary number of mother-o'-pearl buttons that adorned the waistcoat and well-worn fustian jacket of the gentleman in question, would have been at once aware that he was somebody of consequence in costerdom, at all events. ... The pearl button is with him a symbol of position and standing, and by the number of glistening rows that rather for ornament than use, decorate his vestment, his importance amongst his own class may be measured."<ref>Greenwood, J., ''Toilers in London by One of the Crowd'', Diprose & Bateman, 1883</ref>}}

In the 1880s, a man by the name of [[Henry Croft (pearly)|Henry Croft]] who had long admired the costermonger's way of life as well as their showiness and panache, smothered his worn out suit and accessories with pearly buttons arranged in geometric patterns. Costermongers soon recognised that the public loved these shimmering outfits and began wearing more and more heavily decorated outfits and soon became known as the ''Pearly Kings and Queens''.

[[Betty May]] spoke of the "coster" style and atmosphere in London, around 1900, in her autobiography ''Tiger Woman: My Story'':
{{blockquote|"I am often caught with a sudden longing regret for the streets of [[Limehouse]] as I knew them, for the girls with their gaudy [[shawl]]s and heads of [[ostrich]] feathers, like clouds in a wind, and the men in their caps, silk neckerchiefs and bright yellow pointed boots in which they took such pride. I adored the [[Swaggering|swagger]] and the showiness of it all."<ref name=May>May, Betty. (1929) ''Tiger Woman: My Story''. (2014 reprint) London: [[Gerald Duckworth and Company|Duckworth]]. {{ISBN|978-0715648551}}</ref>}}

<gallery widths="200px">
File:Walnuts to pickle. Street traders selling pickled walnuts - Rowlandson's characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders (1820) - BL.jpg|Street traders selling pickled walnuts from Rowlandson's ''Sketches of the Lower Orders'', 1820
File:A veteran naturalist - being the life and work of W.B. Tegetmeier (1916) (14783783035).jpg|A coster girl, {{circa|1860}}
File:Woman selling fruit from small barrow Sydney, ca. 1885-1890 - photographed by Arthur K. Syer (5775144516).jpg|Coster fruit seller with barrow, Sydney, {{circa|1885|1890}}, photographed by Arthur K. Syer
File:Trafalgar Square (14408178718).jpg|Costermonger in Trafalgar Square, {{circa|1935}}
File:A Pearly Collection.jpg|Pearly Kings and Queens
File:Market, sunshades, costermonger, basket Fortepan 83774.jpg|Vegetable costermonger, Hungary, 1935

</gallery>

Costermongers also developed their own linguistic forms. In the 1800s, they spoke ''[[back slang]];'' in which ordinary words are said backwards. Examples of back slang include ''yob'' for ''boy''; ''ecslop'' for ''police''; ''elbat'' for ''table'' and ''yennep'' for ''penny''. Back slang was used as a secret language, a code which only other costermongers understood.<ref>Hotten, John Camden, ''A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words'', 2nd ed, London, 1860; also see: Sullivan, D., "Earth Yenneps: Victorian Back Slang," ''Victorian Web'', Online: http://www.victorianweb.org/history/slang2.html; Henry Mayhew also devoted a section of his work, ''London Labour and the London Poor'' in which he mentioned back slang, see pp 23–24</ref> In her book, ''Shadows of the Workhouse'', Jennifer Worth observed that "Costers... spoke to each other almost entirely in back slang; incomprensible to an outsider."<ref>Worth, J., ''Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London'', Orion Publishing, 2009</ref> Many costermongers also used ''[[rhyming slang]]''; where any word can be substituted with another word that rhymes with it. Examples of rhyming slang include: ''tin lids'' or ''dustpan lids'' for ''kids''; ''jimmy grant'' for ''emigrant''; ''apple and pears'' for ''stairs''; ''rubbidy dub'' for ''pub'' and ''trouble and strife'' for ''wife''.<ref>Hotten, John Camden, ''A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words'', 2nd ed, London, 1860, pp 263–269</ref> The selection of rhyming words often suggested a symbolic association. For example, a ''sorrowful tale'' means ''three months in jail.'' Following the second world war, condensed versions of popular terms were more commonly used,<ref>Franklyn, J., ''A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang'', Routledge, 1960; Franklyn notes that rhyming slang is so essentially Cockney that is often known as ''Cockney slang'' (p.&nbsp;13, p.&nbsp;33, and p.&nbsp;21)</ref> such that ''trouble and strife'' meaning ''wife'' simply became ''trouble'' and the phrase ''down the frog and toad'' (meaning ''down the road'') would be condensed to ''down the frog''. Historians have advanced various explanations for the rise of a unique coster tongue. One possible explanation is that it protected costers from close surveillance.<ref>Jacobs, E., "Disvaluing the Popular: 'Industrial Literacy' and the Emergence of Mass Culture in Victorian England," in ''Victorian Urban Settings: Essays on the Nineteenth-Century City and Its Contexts'', Mancoff, D.N. and Trela, D.J. (eds), Garland Publishing, 1996, p.98</ref>

Both historians and contemporary commentators have pointed to additional distinctive elements of coster culture. In general, they were a hard-working and hard-drinking lot. They were not party political, showed a "complete disregard for the lawful marriage," were not members of any Church, were intensely loyal to other costermongers, were inclined to lend support to the poor and treated their donkeys very well.<ref>''The Slang Dictionary'', London, John Camden Hotten, 1874, p. 130; Fitzgerald, M., McLennan, G. and Pawson, J. (eds) ''Crime and Society: Readings in History and Theory'', Routledge, 1981, pp 138-142</ref> They enjoyed relative autonomy in terms of their working hours and appeared to be "under the command of no-one."<ref>Peddie, I., "Playing in Krishnamurthy, A. (ed), '' The Working-Class Intellectual in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain'', Ashgate Publishing, 2009, p. 252</ref> Their distinctive identity combined with their highly visible position on London streets led to costermongers becoming a symbol of the working class. As Ian Peddie explains:
{{blockquote|"Perhaps the most crucial figure in the rearticulation of the working-class image was the costermonger... Costermongers composed their own broadsides wherein they asserted their own political identity in songs."<ref>Peddie, I., "Playing at Poverty: The Music Hall and the Staging of the Working Class," in Krishnamurthy, A. (ed), ''The Working-Class Intellectual in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain'', Ashgate Publishing, 2009, pp 235–254</ref>}}

Mayhew referred to costermongers as a "dangerous class."<ref>In the 19th century, the concept of a "dangerous class" was very broad and might refer to criminals as well as classes such as costermongers with revolutionary potential. See: Philips, D., "Three 'moral entrepreneurs' and the creation of a 'criminal class' in England, c. 1790s–1840s," ''Crime, History and Societies'', Vol, 7, No. 1, 2003, pp 79–107</ref> The coster community was seen as the "vanguard of resistance" in the 19th century. Their open hostilities with police drew widespread public support and costers who were 'sent down' were seen as martyrs and heroes.<ref>Fitzgerald, M., McLennan, G. and Pawson, J. (eds)'', Crime and Society: Readings in History and Theory'', Routledge, 1981, p. 95</ref> Historians have pointed to the "subversive potential" of the coster class, because of their ability to make broad social connections that cut across geographic boundaries and "related forms of power and exploitation."<ref>Jones, P.T.A., "Redressing Reform Narratives: Victorian London's Street Markets and the Informal Supply Lines of Urban Modernity," ''The London Journal'', Vol 41, No. 1, 2006, p. 69; . Jankiewicz, "A Dangerous Class: The Street Sellers of Nineteenth-Century London," ''Journal of Social History'', Vol 46, No. 2, 2012, pp 391–415;</ref>