Charcoal Vendors
Charcoal suppliers unloading at the market (1902 - Gale and Polden)
As explained previously my family house in Main Street did not have running water. But then, neither did we have any gas nor electrical appliances of any sort. That meant that cooking had to be done over a charcoal fed range - a messy affair that required constant attention by those responsible for cooking hot family meals - and that was the women in the family, my grandmother and my mother.
And it wasn’t just the cooking. They had to make sure that the range was ready for use from early morning right through to late at night. It was a routine that was probably repeated in most of Gibraltar’s working and lower middle-class households.
Luckily the fuel was easily available. The most popular stuff sold in Gibraltar was “picón” - a special kind of charcoal produced in the hills behind Algeciras and in the Sierra Carbonera just behind La Línea de la Concepción. By the late 19th century it was being brought over the frontier in bulk presumably by different producers and delivered to a specially designated suitably covered area within the new general market at Waterport which was designed by Gibraltar’s civil engineer, Captain Samuel Buckle and opened in 1877.
Charcoal market - (1880s - Samual Buckle’s Album) (See LINK)
Facing the east side of Gunner's Parade on what was then the Artillery Barracks that gave it its name (1930s)
(Date unknown)
(Date unknown but possibly Early 20th century)
(1930s)
(1930s)
Main Street ( 1930s - Guilliano collection)
New Passage (1940s - Giulliano Collection)
2018 - Gibraltar’s Hawkers, Vendors and Menders - Part 2
2018 - Gibraltar’s Hawkers, Vendors and Menders - Part 3
2018 - Gibraltar’s Hawkers, Vendors and Menders - Part 4
2018 - Gibraltar’s Hawkers, Vendors and Menders - Part 5
2018 - Gibraltar’s Hawkers, Vendors and Menders - Part 6