The Great Pie 'n' Mash debate.

I joined this group just to say.......how much I miss pie and mash. Now living in Cheshire I really miss this grub!! when I get down to Bermondsey to visit my sister I always make a point of going to Manze's or Arments for a 3 pie, double mash and liquor fix. She swears that Arments pies are better than anyone else's, but i will go anywhere. I know it's out of area, but are Manze's still at the bottom of Peckham Hill Street??

And which way up? sod that, after months of never having pie and mash I'll eat them sideways!!

They are indeed PagonOldBoy. You can find full details at http://pie-and-mash.com/shop.php?43

Mal
Editor
http://www.pie-and-mash.com

This must be one for the Guiness Book of Records, eating three pies sideways crickey! I am impressed.
I have been to the one in Peckham and quite a few others as well. They are all good.

Rod.

Hi to all Pie & Mash fans

Fosney had informed me that there is a rumour going around that Manze's
is closing down.
I have checked the rumour out and it seems to be on other Forums as well.

I e-mailed Manze's direct and here is the Answer.

Funnily enough I have just answered this for a member of the SE1 forum.
There is no truth in this rumour at all, I believe it all started a couple of years ago when the Council increased rents by a significant amount to shop keepers. Apparently a spokesman for our company said we couldn't afford the new rents, which is in itself is quite amusing as we have held the freehold since 1902!
So rest assured we will be continuing to serve pie & mash to the community for many years to come.
Kind regards,
Geoff (a real spokesman for the company)
 
Thanks Fosney for bringing this to our attention
And hope this stops these maliciuos rumours from spreading.

Bermondseyboy

Hi everyone,
oh it has to be underside up, the liquor soaks in quicker:) Im so pleased to have found this forum. Even though Im 51 and left London when I was young, I spent most of my summers at my grandparents. My grandfather had a barbers shop on Kennington Park Rd and his father used to sell ice cream from a small cart, going round the streets selling it. My late mother was a little girl at the time and used to go with him. I know part of the route was Stanley Rd. Im also [so family legend has it] related to the Manze's but am still researching that one.
Roofybabes

Hi Bermondseyboy

Thank goodness you crushed the rumour before I even heared it. There's enough to get upset about without the fear of such a catastrophe, it makes which way up to eat our favourite food pale into insignificance.

Rod.

Here here,
god I can taste those Arments pie and mash right now. And no plastic cutlery, and proper morticians marble tables.
Roofy

I Hope those Morticians washed those tables down properly before they served up those P&M's.
The mind boggles?
 
Bermondseyboy

I remember Joyces very well, my sister's best friend was their daughter. Her father rode a motorbike with side-car (I'm sure George Ropper was based on him). They told me that Joyce was the grandmother who started it all. I used to watch the live eels wrigerling on trays outside the open serving window. Those days no one complained about all the grit blowing down the Tower Bridge Road from all those cars and lorries, not to mention the sawdust on the floor in-side.

By the way I eat mine crusty side up with pleny of vinegar (Sarson's of course) and lots of pepper.

I flip my Manze's pies over to the soft side then cut into them with a knife and watch the gravy
ooze out.
I've loved Manze's pie n mash and stewed eels since the year dot and always say if you don't love pie n mash then you're not a real Londoner!

I can't remember having Manze's pie and mash before the war - I was 11 in 1939 - and I don't think my parents ever ate there or brought them home. Did Manze's exist then? Did people buy them and carry them home in a basin? But I remember having pie and mash and liquor myself regularly about 1948 and after when I could buy them for myself. I only went to the Tower Bridge Road shop, I don't know if there were other Manze shops at that time. I wonder if anyone else had my experience of finding a cockroach under the pie (probably drowned in the parsley sauce)? When I showed it to the lady serving she didn't say a word, just swept it all in a rubbish bin and filled the plate up again. I made sure there was no livestock that time. It wasn't that much of a surprise, more than once during very hot summer days dozens of cockroaches could be seen on the pavement outside the shop coming out of the trapdoors covering the cellar.
Does anyone remember Edwards, a delicatessen on the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Grange Road?  My mother used to buy dripping from there, it wasn't solid but runny with meat jelly and it was wrapped up in greaseproof paper to take home.,  She made a sandwich of it for me and I could never have enough.Very healthy!  I also remember faggots from Heine's, it looked like mincemeat and was very spicy. I wonder if it is made anymore, probably made from offal,
but my family had it when we could afford it.

I can't remember having Manze's pie and mash before the war - I was 11 in 1939 - and I don't think my parents ever ate there or brought them home. Did Manze's exist then?

-cfred

According to the book "Pie n Mash - A guide to Londoners Traditional Eating Houses", Manze's in Tower Bridge Road is the oldest original premises still trading as a Pie & Mash shop (c.120 years)

hi all, i'm so glad that manzes are not shuting down, i don't live in london anymore but  make sure that when i do go back on visits to family i head straight to manzes for my pie & mash......

hi all, i'm so glad that manzes are not shuting down, i don't live in london anymore but  make sure that when i do go back on visits to family i head straight to manzes for my pie & mash......[image]

-gilly

That's great news!

It annoys me that so many of our traditions are going/have gone.
Manze's pie n mash is a local treasure and if that goes then our cockney heritage goes too.

Great memories cfred, so no extra charge for cockroches then.I  remember at Webb Street School on some occations we took bowles to school and had them filled with dripping to take home. I loved dripping to, spead on toast with plenty of salt, such a treat, anything that taste's that good must be o-k and healthy.

I remember my Nan giving me Bread and Dripping, especially on a cold day, it was great and all that fat must have kept us warm.

If i had a sore throat my Nan would give me a spoonfull of sugar soaked in vinegar, better than any medicine and it seemed to do the trick.

My Dad would tuck into Pigs Trotters, with grease running down his chin. I'm not sure if people still eat them now.?
I not sure about the Health issue, but it nether did us any harm.

I have just read through all the comments on Pie and Mash and Iv'e got that yearning for some very strongly again, trouble is living in Australia it's a bit far to nip down to Manzies in Tower Bridge Rd for a nosh... Last time I went for some was 1996 or so, now I have to make my own but I have to make them with a different pastry, I can do the Parsley quite well and the mash, but not the surroundings.. Glad to hear Manzies will not be closing down that would be the end of a Bermondsey Icon and surely there would be blood running in the streets, perish the thought.. I had my first Pie and Mash in about 1935 in Towerbridge Rd  and always looked on it as a great treat.. I see Pigs trotters were mentioned they used to be very popular, does anyone remember the times you could buy half a sheeps head ready cooked? I worked in Peckham doing estate repairs at one stage and one of the houses I worked in used to cook the sheeps heads in the old copper.. Happy Days  Johnoj

pie an mash! jellied eels! was there ever a more fantastic thing my girlfriends tried to make it but i've told her that even a genuine pie an mash take out is not the same as eating it in the shop manzies is great tower bridge rd or peckham. joyces was ok but it put me off when i see sweat dripping off the old boys nose on to the pies i'll add my own salt thanks! that one on old kent rd near east lane was ok the one in the cut as closed probably a trendy wine bar now there was a good one in hastings run by john . ostlers i think it was called it moved to eastbourne an now its closed shame! i think i've probably been in every pie shop in london i don narf miss it now im in the slovak republik

do'es anyone remember the pie an mash shop on millpond bridge-west lane on the little parade of shops by the war memorial its a hairdressers now mash an liquor 4d a bowl luverly!