Moulsham Street in Chelmsford is a typical English high street, with barbers, salons, pubs and no shortage of culinary options: a Chinese, Indian, chippy and Italian, kebab shops and greasy spoons. But there’s one spot you wouldn’t find in most of the country – the pie and mash shop.
F Cooke has all the trappings of a traditional pie and mash shop: white -tiled walls, pictures of celebrities, marble tables and wooden benches. It opened in 2020, becoming the first in the city, according to director Jordan Lassman. There are now two. Robins, which has six shops across east London and Essex, soon joined it in 2021. They are part of a burgeoning scene in Essex, which according to Lassman, is “the new home of pie and mash”.
In recent years several century-old spots in London have closed: L Manze in Walthamstow and Islington, G Kelly in Bethnal Green and Goddard’s in Deptford. Last month the owner of Manze’s in Deptford announced his retirement next year, its website stating: “I don’t know if the shop will remain a pie shop.”
Many shops were listed, the buildings living on as Japanese restaurants (Manze in Walthamstow) and high-end opticians (F Cooke on Broadway Market).
For many operators, changing tastes and demographics, gentrification and increased competition from other cuisines made remaining in London impossible. Throughout the 20th century, east Londoners moved to Essex and the home counties in droves, taking their food with them. The resulting decline in pie and mash in London has led to celebrities including Danny Dyer and comedian Arthur Smith to call for the dish to receive protected status, much like the Cornish pasty.
Pie and mash emerged in the 19th century. Originally filled with eel from the Thames, their dwindling supply saw mince emerge as the favoured filling. Jellied or stewed eels continued as accompaniments, their stock used to make liquor, a vivid green parsley sauce, usually now made without them.
In the 20th century there were more than 100 shops (never restaurants or cafes), mostly in east and south London. Names such as Manze, Robins and Kelly were ubiquitous. At its peak, the Cooke family, which first opened a shop on Brick Lane in 1862, had about 12 branches. There are now 41 pie and mash shops in London, according to Mike Goldwater of the Pie and Mash Club.
At F Cooke in Chelmsford, diners of all ages are tucking into pies. “I’ve come from the East End for this, it’s not the same there now,” says one elderly customer. Lassman opened the shop with her partner, Robert Cooke, the fifth generation to run a Cooke’s. Robert’s uncle owns the remaining London branch in Hoxton, his sister the one in Harold Hill, and his cousin one in Bishop’s Stortford. All follow the traditional family recipe – mince cooked with nothing but salt and white pepper; a suet pastry top. “I’d never had it before,” admits 20-year-old pie maker Aaron Flynn, now a convert.
“People literally have goose pimples and tear up,” says Lassman. “There’s a lot of nostalgia.”
One East End-born customer, John McLaughlin, was a frequent visitor at the Dalston branch (now a board game and craft beer bar). “I worked for BT in 1985. We used to have our lunch there,” McLaughlin told the Observer. “The eels were in pots outside, still live. I didn’t really like them.”
Why does he enjoy the dish?
“It’s good, wholesome food. You can’t beat it. So much food now is mucked about. There’s a pub in Wickford that tries to do it and it’s absolute rubbish.”
Robins in Basildon is packed at lunch, with babies and old-timers tucking into flaky pies with equal delight. The tables are marble, the walls tiled, West Ham memorabilia hangs on the wall. “People come from miles around to have it,” says April Allpress, ex-wife of the owner Thomas Allpress. One customer, Lauren Shaw, is celebrating her birthday with boyfriend Bill Drewer. It’s a family tradition – her mother and grandmother were pie and mash fans.
At the Basildon branch, Thomas Allpress is the fourth generation to run Robins, which started in East Ham in 1929. Today, each shop – the others are in Wanstead, Chingford, Romford and Southend – is owned by a family member.
Pie, mash and liquor is now firmly part of local culture, following the widespread emigration of east Londoners, says Thomas. “Usually when you open a shop in an area like this, the kids want gravy, not liquor. We’ve been here so long that the kids have grown up with liquor.”
Lassman used to live above the Broadway Market shop. “People would stand there looking at the shop, taking photos, then go and get their vegan sausage rolls.”
Thomas added: “Everything’s so dear in London now and there’s not as many customers. We’ve got a really good loyal customer base here.”
“Pie and mash shops are only struggling within London,” says Goldwater. “The situation is far different in the home counties, and pie and mash shops have what it takes to adapt and survive in the modern world.” Goldwater can see a time when the “shops outside London will outnumber the ones within London”.
Neil Vening, fourth-generation owner of G Kelly, which opened in 1939 on the Roman Road in Bow, insists it “isn’t going away” in the capital. Vening took over from his mother in 2020, hoping to “keep alive the tradition”. There were “too many shops all close together,” he says. “I think that’s evened out.”
Without modernising much (though he says G Kelly was the first to launch vegan pies in 1995; now most serve them), the crowd is mixed. “We’re serving the entire community,” he says. Visitors come from across London, some intrigued tourists from abroad, while West Ham United’s move to the London Stadium nearby has provided a major boost. Other shops, such as Goddard’s in Greenwich and Manze’s on Tower Bridge Road, are thriving, while pie and mash is a popular snack at Leyton Orient and West Ham games.
Nevertheless, London’s original fast food is finding a new homeland, with many Essex towns having at least one shop, if not more. “Hopefully it’ll never die in London,” says Lassman. “But I would definitely say [Essex] is the new home of pie and mash.”
