Talk:Chelsea Bun House

Bun fight
We have a challenge of the number of buns sold on the last Good Friday. George Bryan's Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times (1869) states "so lately as 1839 no less than 240,000 were sold here on Good Friday. This may appear to many to be an incredulous number; but few persons at the present time can form an adequate idea of the immense demand for them." The London Encyclopedia gives the same figure in its entry and so we have some agreement there. But now another editor points out that Walford's Old and New London (1878) gives the figure as 24,000. I have confirmed that that is what the source says. But it does seem to be outnumbered by other sources as a third source with the 240,000 figure is John Timbs Curiosities of London (1855) (p 76). It seems that Walford's work is an isolated misprint but further evidence is invited. Andrew D. (talk) 00:31, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

The case for change
I have not edited the main page again,opting instead to put the case here first.

I agree that a misprint is involved, but it is the erroneous addition of a zero to 24,000, an inaccuracy which has then been repeated and misquoted multiple times. This repetition does not make it true, however many times it is used. In support of my contention, I cite the following extract published just over two weeks after the day in question, in 1839:

During the prosperous times of the late Mrs. Margaret Hand, upwards of two hundred and fifty pounds have been taken on a Good Friday for buns, the making of which were begun more than three weeks before the day of sale, in order to prepare the necessary quantity for the public demand ; they were kept moist, and were re-baked before being sold. ''During the palmy days of Ranelagh, the neighbouring Temple of Fashion and Pleasure, the Bun-house enjoyed a great share of prosperity, which very much fell off upon the termination of that institution, and it continued to decline while under the management of the late occupier; notwithstanding, it appears that he sold on last Good Friday, April 18th, 1839, upwards of 24,000 buns, which consisted of the following quantities, viz.:—eight sacks of fine flour, butter, sugar, and new milk. The sale of which produced upwards of one hundred pounds. '' The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,and Instruction: VOL.XXXIII, No.947 Saturday May 4th 1839, p287 (Link)

Most sources make mention of the astonishing fact of the Bun House taking upwards of £250 in its heyday. At a price of a penny a bun (£100 divided by 24,000 = 1d/bun), to take £250 the Hand family would have had to sell 60,000 buns, an astonishing feat considering the Bun House was only a single-story former home.

Crunching the numbers also does not support the larger figure. The sheer logistics required to sell 240,000 in one day make it prohibitive: over 13 thousand buns an hour, every hour, for 18 hours - not to mention the difficulty in making and storing that quantity of buns in the preceding weeks. The revenue this would have generated would have exceeded a thousand pounds. No accounts mention the Bun House bringing in a thousand pounds in a single day. Conversely, if 240,000 buns were indeed sold on that last Good Friday and brought in the £100 stated, that would mean they were sold 15 for a farthing.

The article quoted should be considered the definitive source, primarily due to its proximity to the date in question. It is my contention that the reason for the error in subsequent sources, published several decades later, arises either from the aforementioned typographical error adding an extra zero to the 24,000 buns sold on that last Good Friday, or a jumbling of the individual facts of 24,000, £250 and 'a fantastic amount of money taken in one day' MrsMAB (talk) 09:12, 14 December 2016 (UTC)


 * These are good points and so I agree that we should amend the article accordingly. Where sources differ or seem erroneous, it's a good idea to have a footnote which explains the details so that the reader has all the facts and can assess them for themselves.  I'll make a start on this now and we can improve it in the light of any further discussion. Andrew D. (talk) 09:36, 14 December 2016 (UTC)