* “Manze Pie & Mash” – Tower Bridge Road – London SE1

A bit of a short ‘n sweet London Shoes blog this week – but one that’s making me feel hungry just typing it up.

Like loads of other Londoner’s me and my London Shoes are rather partial to a plate of proper PIE & MASH with LIQUOR – and it’s fair to say that the popularity of this London specialty certainly appears to have increased in recent years – whether that’s a nostalgia/identity/cultural thing during these present times….who knows – but it is a very enjoyable and satisfying plate of food.

So – the other day, accompanied by a couple of my long-time drinking buddies Pete and Lee – we found ourselves crossing the Thames into South East London and heading down Tower Bridge Road towards “MANZE”, a historic ‘Pie & Mash’ shop in Bermondsey.

The first Manze’s restaurant was opened in 1892 by Robert Cooke and Michele Manze.

Michele Manze arrived in London from Southern Italy, as a 3yr old with his family.

The Manze family settled in Bermondsey and initially began trading as ice-merchants, then ice-cream makers – and then branched out into the pie, mash & eels trade.

The first shop to bear the Manze name was at 87 Tower Bridge Road-Bermondsey – it was a restaurant that specialised in serving up Pie & Mash and Eels – a staple diet for Victorian Londoners back in those days.

As the decades passed the business stayed in the family, and several more pie & mash shops were opened – at one stage there were a total of 14  Manze Pie&Mash  shops operating across London –  with the shops in Peckham and Tower Bridge Road, probably being the most popular.

In WW2 a couple of the shops were destroyed by German bombs during the Blitz. Then, the popular Peckham Manze shop was burnt down during the Brixton Riots in 1985 – and didn’t re-open again until 1990.

The combination of finances and Covid restrictions reduced the number of Manze’s shops even more over the past few years – but the Tower Bridge Road shop is still going strong.

Today – Manze pie & mash business, is as it always has been –  a family run business and long may that continue.

The pies that are sold in the shop are cooked freshly each day.

The pie pastry is handmade at the shop and filled with prime cut beef mince – then filled with a bit of gravy – no other meats or offal are used in the making of the pies.

The pies are then laid out on massive trays and cooked on site in a traditional stone oven.

Loads of potatoes are peeled and cooked and mashed-up at the shop each day.

Once cooked and ready, Manze pie & mash is served up with traditional lashings of liquor, which is basically a type of parsley sauce – embellished with a Manze secret ingredient.

You can also have a plate of stewed/jellied eels if you fancy ‘em – the eels are fresh, delivered daily and prepared in-house.

In season, the eels come fresh from the Thames – out of season, they are imported from Holland – which sort of clarifies an interesting story I once heard about Holland and its association with the eels of London.

I was once told that during the Great Fire of London in 1666, when the houses and shops of the City were decimated by fire, Dutch trading ships offered their support by sailing down the Thames and mooring up in the City stretch of the River – and from there they served up meals of eels to the destitute and hungry Londoners. As a result, in appreciation of their support, I was told that only Dutch eel traders were/are granted licences allowing only them, to trade eels with the City food wholesalers.

As I say, I don’t know if there’s any of that is true, but the fact that, to this day, some of Manze’s eels are imported in from Holland, does possibly add a bit of credence to the story.

Anyway – getting back to my London Shoes visit to the Manze shop in the Tower Bridge Road the other day – as I mentioned earlier, I was accompanied by my 2 mates Pete and Lee (not ‘Peters & Lee – I don’t want you to start singing ‘Welcome Home’……only readers of a certain age will know what I’m on about). Like me, Pete is now retired and regular followers of my Shoes stuff will be aware that he often accompanies me on my treks out. Lee, on the other hand, still has to work for a living – but as he had a day off work, and always wanted to pound the pavements with me, he came along for the ride, so to speak.

Now – my mate Pete has a personal connection to Manze’s in Tower Bridge Road, because as a school kid in Bermondsey, he would often visit the shop, during the school dinner break, to have a plate of pie & mash for his lunch, rather than have school dinners – so, our visit to the Manze shop was a bit of a walk down memory lane for him.

During opening hours there is always a queue out the door at the Manze in Tower Bridge Road – and the day we rocked up there was no exception.

You can either eat-in, on the lovely old marble type table tops throughout the shop – or – you can have a take-away and eat back at your place of work.

We chose to eat-in and so happily joined the queue – it was a dry hot sunny day so we didn’t have to worry about queuing outside in the rain – because, up until just a few days ago, London hadn’t seen any of the wet stuff falling from the sky for the past few months!!!

When we eventually got to the counter, I treated my 2 accomplices to lunch – Pete had double pie with double mash / Lee had double pie with one mash whilst I had one pie, with one mash. Pete also had a large glass of ‘sarsaparilla’, a traditional herbal type of drink that used to be very popular with pie & mash consumers back in the day – although not as popular these days, Manze’s in Tower Bridge Road still serves it up.

So – there you have it – Pie & Mash, often described as a Cockney classic – a traditional London working class meal that originated in Victorian times – and a meal that’s still going strong today…….luverlee !!!!

Hope you enjoyed this little story and its accompanying photos.

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See below the entire gallery of photos taken to support this London Shoes article

The 1864 built ‘Tower Bridge’ – one of London’s global instantly recognised landmarks – and for this particular blog topic, my London Shoes crossed the Thames from north to southern banks – on route to the Manze shop in Tower Bridge Road SE1

Always an enjoy amble, crossing Tower Bridge

Me – Pete – Lee – my accomplices for this particular London Shoes jaunt out

The historic Manze Pie & Mash & Eel shop is located at 87 Tower Bridge Road – London SE1

The first Manze’s restaurant was opened in 1892 by Robert Cooke and Michele Manze.

As the decades passed the business stayed in the family, and several more pie & mash shops were opened – at one stage there were a total of 14 Manze Pie&Mash shops operating across London

The first shop to bear the Manze name was at 87 Tower Bridge Road-Bermondsey – it was a restaurant that specialised in serving up Pie & Mash and Eels – a staple diet for Victorian Londoners back in those days.

Me & my London Shoes, accompanied by my mates Lee & Pete – outside the famous ‘Manze’ shop in Tower Bridge Road – London SE1

During opening hours there is always a queue out the door at the Manze in Tow-er Bridge Road – and the day we rocked up there was no exception. You can either eat-in, on the lovely old marble type table tops throughout the shop – or – you can have a take-away and eat back at your place of work. (Photo shows my mates Pete & Lee in the Manze queue)

The pies that are sold in the Manze shop are cooked freshly each day. The pie pastry is handmade at the shop and filled with prime cut beef mince – then filled with a bit of gravy – no other meats or offal are used in the making of the pies. The pies are then laid out on massive trays and cooked on site in a traditional stone oven.

‘Sarsaparilla’ – is a traditional herbal type of drink that used to be very popular with pie & mash consumers back in the day – although not as popular these days, Manze’s in Tower Bridge Road still serves it up.

Loads of potatoes are peeled and cooked and mashed-up at the shop each day. Once cooked and ready, Manze pie & mash is served up with traditional lashings of liquor, which is basically a type of parsley sauce – embellished with a Man-ze secret ingredient. You can also have a plate of stewed/jellied eels if you fancy ‘em – the eels are fresh, delivered daily and prepared in-house.

Now – my mate Pete has a personal connection to Manze’s in Tower Bridge Road, because as a school kid in Bermondsey, he would often visit the shop, during the school dinner break, to have a plate of pie & mash for his lunch, rather than have school dinners – so, in a way, my London Shoes visit to the Manze shop was a bit of a trip down memory lane for him

My London Shoes accomplices for the day. Pete & Lee – getting stuck into their plates of Manze’s pie & mash –

Me & my London Shoes enjoying my 1 x pie + 1 x mash with liquor – in the Manze pie & mash & eel shop in Tower Bridge Road – London SE1…….luverlee stuff !!