The Cut, London

The Old Victheatre, at the western end of the Cut inLambeth

TheYoung Victheatre, halfway along the northern side of the Cut

The Cut(formerlyNew Cut) is a street in London which runs betweenWaterloo RoadinLambethandBlackfriars RoadinSouthwark,approximately parallel to theSouth Eastern Railway.TheOld Vic theatreis at the western (Lambeth) end, and the more experimentalYoung Victheatre halfway along on the other side.Lewisham Southwark Collegeis sited on the south side of the Cut and at the eastern (Southwark) end isSouthwark Underground station.WaterlooandWaterloo Eaststations are also nearby.

Street market

Lower Marshand the Cut formed the commercial heart of the area from the early 19th century.Henry Mayhewestimated in the 1840s that 300costermongersattended the market here. He described the scene in his workLondon Labour and the London Poor:

THE LONDON STREET MARKETS ON A SATURDAY NIGHT.

The street sellers are to be seen in the greatest numbers at the London street markets on a Saturday night. Here, and in the shops immediately adjoining, the working-classes generally purchase their Sunday's dinner... on Saturday night, or early on Sunday morning, the New-cut, and the Brill in particular, is almost impassable.

Indeed, the scene in these parts has more of the character of a fair than a market. There are hundreds of stalls, and every stall has its one or two lights... these, with the sparkling ground-glass globes of the tea-dealers' shops, and the butchers' gaslights streaming and fluttering in the wind, like flags of flame, pour forth such a flood of light, that at a distance the atmosphere immediately above the spot is as lurid as if the street were on fire....

This stall is green and white with bunches of turnips—that red with apples, the next yellow with onions, and another purple with pickling cabbages. One minute you pass a man with an umbrella turned inside up and full of prints; next, you hear one with a peepshow ofMazeppa,andPaul Jonesthe pirate, describing the pictures to the boys looking in at the little round windows. Then is heard the sharp snap of the percussion-cap from the crowd of lads firing at the target for nuts; and the moment afterwards, you see either a black man half-clad in white, and shivering in the cold with tracts in his hand, or else you hear the sounds of music from Frazier's Circus... Such, indeed, is the riot, the struggle, and the scramble for a living, that the confusion and uproar of the New-cut on Saturday night have a bewildering and saddening effect upon the thoughtful mind.

The fortunes of the street market changed rapidly with time. In 1851 Mayhew wrote: "Since the above description was written, the New Cut has lost much of its noisy and brilliant glory. In consequence of aNew Policeregulation, "stands" or "pitches" have been forbidden, and each coster, on a market night, is now obliged, under pain of the lock-up house, to carry his tray, or keep moving with his barrow. The gay stalls have been replaced by deal boards, some sodden With wet fish, others stained purple with blackberries, or brown with walnut-peel; and the bright lamps are almost totally superseded by the dim, guttering candle. Even the pole under the tray or "shallow" is resting on the ground, the policeman on duty is obliged to interfere. The mob of purchasers has diminished one-half; and instead of the road being filled with customers and trucks, the pavement and kerb-stones are scarcely crowded. "

The market in the Cut continued until the 1950s, when the street was designated as theB300thoroughfare betweenBorough High StreetandWestminster Bridge Road;the remaining traders moved toLower Marshwhere some street stalls continue (to 2019), or to new shops rebuilt on the bombed sites.

A bo xing gymnasium situated above a pub on the Cut is alleged to be wherethe modern rulesfor the sport of bo xing were penned. The street is also now home to a range of restaurants, shops and offices.