Mind the (hungry) gap!

Whether Metroland breakfasts or picnics on the go, the railways have transformed how we eat forever

- Emma Hughes

ON Saturday, November 1, 1879, the Wakefield Express printed an account of a 'substantial luncheon'. 'Glasses were filled with wine and placed on the tables, and not a drop was spilled,' its correspondent reported, after detailing a menu of mutton cutlets, mashed potato and green peas, cold meats, cheese and celery. 'Ordinary decanters and bottles betrayed no tendency to topple over into the laps of the guests, or plates to empty their contents on the carpet.'

Nothing newsworthy there, you might think—except for the fact that this particular lunch had taken place on a moving train. Following America's lead, the Great Northern Railway had shipped over a Pullman dining car from Detroit, turned it into 'a model of elegance and luxuriousness... the only one in England' and launched it on its Leeds to London King's Cross Route. The passengers, who dined in easy-chairs upholstered in crimson velvet and designed for 'perfect steadiness', were wowed, as was the general public. A new era of dining on the go had arrived.

The railways had already been changing the way the country ate for decades. Following the introduction of the public steam railway in 1825, it became possible to get fresh produce to the other end of the country in a matter of hours, still in excellent saleable condition.