UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was started by William Hillyer in 1795 as a commercial but benevolent venture, to provide nutritious food to the local poor and for the men working on the development of the Foundling Hospital estate (William Hillyer, [Extract from an account of a London soup shop], Report of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, 1798)

Hillyer said that the Irish labourers working locally were among his best customers when he was based in Colonnade (William Hillyer, [Extract from an account of a London soup shop], Report of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, 1798)

The rich could buy tickets to give to the poor, exchangeable for soup at the shop (Annual Register, 19 October 1796)

Hillyer used a Rumford kitchen for efficiency; there was also one at the Foundling Hospital

According to Hillyer, he was able to feed four hundred people a day when he was based in Colonnade, and when he moved to Fulwood’s Rents, he was using 400–500lb meat per week, and sending 32 gallons a week of soup to a parish in Surrey (William Hillyer, [Extract from an account of a London soup shop], Report of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, 1798)

The building slump and loss of custom due to the war necessitated a move to Fulwood’s Rents in 1797, a neighbourhood where Hillyer said there would be a “regular and increased custom” (William Hillyer, [Extract from an account of a London soup shop], Report of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, 1798)

He also provided a room with a table “for the best company” here, and he was still using a Rumford kitchen (William Hillyer, [Extract from an account of a London soup shop], Report of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, 1798)

An advertisement in The Times said that he was selling soup for 6d a gallon (The Times, 22 January 1799)

It no longer exists