The bidding soon gets under way starting with turkeys and geese followed by loins of lamb, ribs of beef, pork bellies, racks of lamb, steaks and gammon. The crowd push and thrust their pound notes high up in the air. When an owner for any haunch of meat is established, fistfulls of notes are passed forward and the butchers throw the meat into the hands of its winner. London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP.
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.
