An original vintage first edition print from 1925, after the pen and ink drawing by Hanslip Fletcher. With later hand colouring.
Birch's Chop House, located at 15 Cornhill in the City of London, was famously known as the oldest and most celebrated confectionery and chop house institution in London. Founded in the early 18th century, it was a legendary "temple of gormandising" that fed London's elite, politicians, and working men for over two centuries.
It functioned as a classic chop house serving venison, oysters, and grilled meats, and achieved global fame for its real turtle soup.
It was the exclusive caterer for the prestigious Lord Mayor’s Banquets at Guildhall. Live turtles would sit on the shop counters, waiting to be turned into rich soups and pies.According to the 1815 Epicure's Almanac, the restaurant kept condiments like lemon and cayenne free on tables to help diners "fortify the stomach".
The shop was elevated to iconic status by Samuel Birch, an apprentice who took over from his father, Lucas Birch, in the late 1700s. Samuel was an incredibly eccentric London figure: he was a successful playwright, an army colonel, and eventually elected Lord Mayor of London. Through the centuries the physical shop be resisted modernisation and kept its tiny, timber-framed Georgian storefront, until the 1920s when the chop house was 'given the chop' by property developers. However, the storefront was considered so architecturally and historically valuable that it was saved and is now in the V&A Museum in South Kensington.
This is one of a series of 28 pen and ink illustrations of London by Fletcher Hanslip. They were originally published in the Sunday Times, and subsequently issued as books in 1925..
Hanslip Fletcher was an important artist during the twentieth century. He produced numerous sketches of London and other British towns and cities. This illustration shows London as it was in the 1920s.
Fletcher was a watercolour painter and printmaker with a special interest in London’s architecture.
Born in London, he was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, and became a member of the Art Workers’ Guild. He lived in London all of his life.
Fletcher’s work featured regularly in London’s serious daily and Sunday newspapers, and he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Goupil Gallery, the royal Institution and in other London galleries.
