The song-bird market

An illustration of a song-bird market from the book 'Journeys through London, or, byways of modern Babylon' by James Greenwood, undated, c.1873. Greenwood describes a visit to the St. Giles area, eventually walking through White Lion Street and into Great St. Andrew's where there was a bird market. The market sold song birds, including starlings, blackbirds, thrushes, finches, larks and canaries, as well as poultry and other birds such as ducks, hens, geese, pigeons, ravens and parrots. Bird cages were sold in addition to bird food (snails and meal-worms). The bird-merchants also dealt in rats and dogs, and outside one shop Greenwood noted a 'picture of a terrier with a pair of big shears straddled over him, and the legend, "Dogs trimmed, eightpence" underneath.'