A Regency Era Breakfast: Various Times to Eat

How did those in Regency London begin their days? The answer is not so simple. The various social classes went about their days in their distinct ways. They rose and ate at different times depending on their class structure. There was also distinct differences between the social habits of those who lived in London proper, usually referred to as the City or Town, and those who lived in the surrounding villages/towns (i.e., Winchester in Hampshire) or those in the country. As different as were the architectural structures for these two adjoining cities, so were there differences in the residents daily lives.

Bankers, merchants, etc., considered nine of the clock as the “breakfast hour.” The whole family gathered about the table. The said “breakfast” did not fit what we now think of the morning meal. Instead, it consisted of bread and tea. Karl Moritz in his Travels in England (1782) described a typical breakfast: “The slices of bread and butter, which they give you with your tea, are as thin as poppy-leaves – But there is another kind of bread and butter usually eaten with tea, which is toasted by the fire, and is incomparably good. You take one slice after the other and hold it to the fire on a fork till the butter is melted, so that it penetrates a number of the slices all at one; this is called toast.”

M.Grosley wrote of his visit to England  in A Tour to London, published in 1772: “The Butter and Tea which the Londoners live upon from morning until three or four in the afternoon, occasions the chief consumption of bread, which is cut in slices, and so thin, that it does as much honour to the address of the person that cuts it, as to the sharpness of the knife.”

Robert Southey in Letters from England {using the pseudonym Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (1807)} described the breakfast table as holding a sporting a tea pot of silver of of fine porcelain, a smaller coffee vase.

The journeyman would take his breakfast at about eight of the clock. Normally, he would have been at work for 2-3 hours before breaking his fast. He, too, partook of bread and tea, which was available for sale at public houses. He could purchase it at the public house or the establishment would have it delivered to him.

The working man could also purchase a breakfast with tea from a street stall. Benjamin Franklin described his 1725 breakfast as one of “warm gruel, in which was a small slice of butter, with toasted bread and nutmeg.”

From Time and Work in England 1750-1830, by Hans-Joachim Voth, we discover, “Individuals would rise early, at around 6:00 in the morning. Within the next half-hour or so, people would start work. Breakfast would be taken later, at around 9:00 and afterwards. The morning’s work would finish with ‘dinner’–probably taken between 12:30 and 14:00. Work continued until late. For some, there was tea in the late afternoon, between 17:00 and 18:00. It would be common not to leave one’s work before 19:00. After the evening meal, people would go to bed at around 22:00.”

From The Regency Town House, we learn, “After breakfast with the children, the first job of the lady of the house would be to talk to the housekeeper. It would be important for them to communicate about the other servants, making sure they were doing their jobs properly and behaving correctly above and below stairs. They would also discuss the evening meal. If visitors were expected, the lady would choose meals that were lavish and unusual. (They loved showing off.) When these matters were dealt with the wife would then check through the household accounts. Bills for meat, candles and flour would usually be paid weekly. When the early morning activities were finished, the social whirl would begin! High society ladies would either receive calls or visit others. Tea would be drunk and snacks eaten.”