Londoners ring in Christmas with hunks of meat

On the morning of Christmas Eve, around 9.30am a hundred or so people are gathered outside Hearts as Lawrence opens the auction by explaining the bidding rules. The meat is held up by the butchers who call for a price to be set, leading to punter cries of “tenna”, “twen’y” or other appropriate multiples of ten pound notes. No coins, no credit cards and no fancy packaging.