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A ‘toothsome trio’ of flowersellers in 1921. |
Eliza Doolittle: our fair lady
The inspiration for Shaw’s flower-seller was a real-life Camden girl. Dan Carrier talks to Eliza’s grandson, who has published his family story
My Old Man Was A Barrow Boy – and Gran Was A Piccadilly Flower Girl. By George H Fage. Town Crier Press, 9 Blundells Road Tilehurst, Berks RG30 4TR, £6.95
HER name has become synonymous with one of the world’s best-loved tales: the rags to riches story of Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion – later transformed into My Fair Lady, the hit musical.
But what isn’t generally known is that there was a real Eliza Doolittle and that the inspiration for the character who sang Wouldn’t It Be Lovely was born in Camden Town, and lived out her life in Albany Street.
Now her story has been told by her grandson, George Fage, in his autobiographical book My Old Man Was A Barrow Boy – and Gran Was a Piccadilly Flower Girl, which sheds light on a world that is still recognisable even though its main characters have disappeared.
Mr Fage, 78, ran a greengrocers in Albany Street and his father, also George, was a costermonger (a streetseller of fruit and vegetables) who also ran a number of fruit and vegetable shops in the area.
“I wanted my grandchildren to know about my grandparents’ lives,” he said. “I have an interest in genealogy. This comes to most people later on in life, when you are facing the reality that you are getting old. You start to wonder about life and its purpose: who you are and what made you.
“My main purpose is to pass on these stories and anecdotes to future generations of the family.”
His book offers a glimpse into a world of horse-drawn carts and gaslight that is still held in a collective memory but has otherwise disappeared.
Born in the 1920s, George Fage was just one generation away from Victorian London. His grandparents were Elizabeth Reardon and George Henry Fage: he was a printer while she worked as a coster girl. Like her mother before her, her trade was selling flowers.
Eliza, as she was called, was was born in 1880 and was a “handsome, well built woman of Irish descent”. She was a well-known figure in Covent Garden market, and George Bernard Shaw bought flowers from her – hence the link with My Fair Lady. In his book, George says that “she was fearless, the length of her tongue was legendary”. She was also said to have “wielded a large hatpin that would stop a horse”.
When George retired from running his greengrocers aged 55 – unloading goods and standing in the shop all day caused damage to his knees – he took up a job with Camden Council as a carer for the elderly, covering the King’s Cross area. He would drive old people from their flats to luncheon clubs and generally look out for them.
He said: “I heard so many amazing stories from all sorts of people. There was a man who had been a cook on a whaling ship, and a lass from Yorkshire who had been sent by her family to London to go into service.
“She told me how lucky she felt to have been a servant – which made me think of how poor it must have been up north when she was a little girl. She eventually married a black Londoner she had met who was appearing as a fairground attraction in Hyde Park under the title The Savage Zulu.”
It was at this time that George got his inspiration for writing his own family’s story.
The following extracts (uncorrected) are anecdotes from George Fage’s book about his father and grandmother.
I WAS born a barrow boy’s son, on August 3, 1929. The first born of George Fage and Louisa Dujardin in University College Hospital, Gower Street, London NW1 in the old borough of St Pancras, a stone’s throw from Euston Station. All my many homes and businesses I have lived and worked in, with one exception, were within one mile of Euston...
On Bank Holidays, The Costers could be seen in their hundreds travelling with their horses and carts to the fairs at Hampstead Heath to the Easter and Whitsun Horse Shows in Regent’s Park. As a child I witnessed the seemingly everlasting procession along Albany Street and Hampstead Road from early morning to late at night.
We would try and hitch a ride on the back of the carts which always brought cries from other kids of “Look behind you Guv’nor!” The drivers would casually flick their whips backwards to deter us and I can tell you from painful experience that it hurt if the lash caught you...
In 1950 Dad acquired Sinbad who became by common consent “Sinbags”, a monkey. He had bought him off a sailor in Covent Garden. He was kept in the loft, a chain lead round his waist.
He was admired by all and mostly behaved himself and would groom any one who took an interest. Lulu [George’s mother] was frightened of him and he took a great dislike to her.
He would take up a threatened stance and chattered at her whenever she made an appearance. He had been taught some rude gestures by the Old Man, one of which could be politely called self-abuse and he always did this to Lulu which made the Old Man roar with laughter. Lulu would say: “You can see he takes after the Fages.”
After a year having been fed the best of everything in the shop, he grew into a magnificent animal. Eventually he became too much of a handful and dad gave him to the Zoo. We were very proud of the plaque that said “donated by the Fage family”. From the reports we got it was obvious he was still causing trouble. Apparently he was so oversexed that he killed two females in his efforts to mate. Inevitably Lulu said ‘Typical Fage’ and blamed the Old Man.
When he was demobbed he arrived home with a big pram filled with German Nazi insignia, SS Daggers, Helmets etc, watches, cameras and binoculars.
He and his pals had been advised by an old soldier to run past the MPs at the double when they got off the boat at Dover, so as not to get searched. Included in this loot was a Very Pistol and I got very excited waiting to fire it.
Dad took us to Regent’s Park where there were as yet no lights nor railings. I was allowed to fire the pistol and down came the flare on a small parachute. The flare lit up the field for some hundred yards radius and suddenly there were couples jumping up everywhere clutching their underwear and clothes and beating a hasty retreat...
The Park has a magnificent lake on which one could hire rowing boats. My family for years had a cutting from the Camden Town Gazette about a calamity in which 40 people drowned when the ice collapsed on the park lake on January 15th 1867.
No one knew why the cutting had been saved, but two people had been underlined in the list of the dead. One was a 12-year-old R Born of the Lord Palmerston Pub in Hampstead Road, and James Jobson, a house painter from Albany Street. It may be that they were known to the family. |
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Your comments:
I DO not know if I will get a reply to this but it's worth a try.
My grandmother was also a flower seller in Camden High Street, right near Marks and Spencers in the small alley way. I was told Marks and Spencers paid her some money not to sell flowers there any more. She also sold flowers outside Saint Pancras station, and a hospital near Euston. Her name Annie Cole, she lived in Drummond Street, Sommers Town, London. Round about the year 1911-1960 her daughter Annie married into the Woodall family and she took over the flower selling. Annie Woodall daughter Sheila - married into the Barrott family then took over the flower selling. Sadly I do not know what happen after this. If any one has information or photo's of my family selling the flowers please contact me. I do not know where they are now. Thank you for reading this. Please only reply if you truthfully have information. I have been advised at one time other members of the Cole family sold fruit and veg in Camden Town and they had a stall in Queens Crescent Market, Kentish Town. London.
Chris
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