Flower Girls
Country of Origin: England

low-ers! Flow-ers for sale!” Reminiscent of My Fair Lady‘s Eliza Doolittle and the famous flower girls of Victorian London, St. Charles greets you with its official Flower Girl. Sprigs of fresh holly and carnations in a variety of colors are available from her her basket for a modest donation; red for love and Christmas, pink for Happiness, yellow for friendship, fushia for thanks and white for purity. If you ask nicely, she may even serenade you with a pretty song to make your Christmas Merry.

Keeping gentleman’s buttonholes filled with primroses and bunches of violet in ladies hands was essential to the survival of the original flower girls of London’s Covent Gardens and Farringdon Markets. In 1889 it was illegal to solicit sales standing in one place, yet an estimated 2000 young girls were making their living selling on the streets. These were often orphans of Irish immigrants or daughters supporting their entire families on meager earnings. When winter brought fewer flowers to market, the girls would also sell water-cress, onions, matchsticks and oranges in the Spring.

Sources for the History of the Flower Girl:

http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications3/newtoilers-1.htm
London Labour And The London Poor By Henry Mayhew

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