did fish and chips used to be working class?

[Marshtit]

i never had fish and chips growing up
and only have it once in a blue moon now

it used to be a really common meal, i believe, particularly on fridays

Are you a countess?

no
perhaps we were too poor for fish and chips, i certainly am now!

Yes. On a Friday there would be long queues at the chippy. Not any longer!

Nope! I grew up having fish and chips maybe twice a month. Typical middle class family. Still love my fish and chips but feel you now need to be a millionaire to afford it!

Sorry, that was a bit mean. Yes, it was a common meal. Fish on a Friday is a Christian thing. I think it is less common because there are so many more takeaway options available now.

It's certainly not a cheap option these days. There was a TV programme a while ago with Jay Blades about London, and I think it said that battered fish was a thing invented or brought here by the Jewish immigrants, I think this would have been between the two world wars? That was in East London, so certainly a very working class and therefore cheap meal at the time.

Friday fish and chips is a Christian mainly Catholic hangover from many moons ago. It’s the fish not the chips. No meat to be eaten as penitence on a Friday. It is interesting how Christianity influences small parts of British life with many taking part unknowingly.

I know the feeling! I think they were a fairly affordable and filling tea - I worked at a chippy in the 90s, think it was about £2.75 for ‘once wi’ bits’

Yes it did and it’s called fish Friday. I still enjoy fish and chips but we spend alot of time by the coast

Yes it always was associated with the working classes back in the day. Anything eaten out of newspaper was. I think the image has evolved nowadays into a respectable traditional British dish which is why the chippies that do it well can charge high prices and attract clientele of all classes.

It is very expensive where I live, for a fish, and chip meal. I make my own. Much better!

We never had fish and chips, or indeed any other takeaway meal, when I was growing up but I think it was because my mum just couldn't afford it. It may also have been because we didn't eat fried food - not sure why! I can't remember ever having had fried food, not even fried eggs. Later in life my mum did oven chips but that was the closest she ever got.

Probably was until Rick Stein opened up his chip shops.

Got one here in town. Shite food that costs a fortune.

Yes. It was really cheap even in the ‘60s when I was growing up - potatoes were cheap, fish was cheap, dripping/lard was cheap - and in a time without convenience food where food prep was a real chore it was an easy meal at the end of the week. Watch the episode of “The 1900 House” when she is trying to make a quick cup of tea, and thank your lucky stars for kettles and microwaves. In my snobbish middle class household it was something you had as a bit of a naughty treat - occasional, delicious and a bit grubby.

Have you read George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier? He talks about working class diets in the 1930s and the role played by fish and chips and other foods that were cheap, but tasty.

I don’t think it’s the actual eating of fish on a Friday - it’s more to do with not eating meat. My grandpa went one further - he didn’t eat at all on a Friday. Friday was a fast day for him.

I think it used to be more common across working and middle classes. It used to be affordable but now it's massively expensive. I used to get battered sausage and chips as a teen as I was on a budget. I ordered it recently and the fish alone was £12! But we used to have it on Thursdays, me and my dad. When my mum was at some evening class.

It was the only takeaway option for most towns.

There is so much more choice now and most want to order online. I noticed even on Good Friday the local chippy was empty.

There is a story about Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels walking down the Tottenham Court Road eating fish and chips.

I'm racking my brains to think of anyone I know who has never had them, clearly much more choice of takeaways now and the price has skyrocketed recently. Fridays were the popular day , partly because of people still obseving no meat then and also a treat at the end of the working/school week for a lot of people.

My current abd previous work places still have ‘Fish Fridays’. My two children have them at school too. I love the tradition.

There are pockets where it's still cheap. We went to a seaside place in the north east and DH went off to get a large fish and chips for us to share - I gave him £20 and nearly fell over when he came back with change from a tenner. When we were down in Cornwall we were paying £12.50 just for one regular portion.

We often had it in the 90s, but on a Saturday night.

It was often fish on the menu for school/hospital dinners on a Friday!

Fish and chips wrapped in newspaper - I can smell it now! All warm and vinegary. It wasn’t the same when they stopped using newspaper. I used to like sneakily reading the newspaper it came in, because it was always The Sun or The Mirror, and we didn’t get those sort of papers at home.

Same. A rare treat in a MC but permanently skint family. About once a year was usual.

same for me, and still is!

oh apart from the fried eggs,
fried eggs, bacon and fried or tinned tomatoes is a well remember meal