Bargain-loving Britain says au revoir to Onion Johnnies

London

They were once a little-known but colourful quirk of London life, the French onion sellers, known as Onion Johnnies, who popped over the channel from Brittany for three months at a time to sell their onions in more affluent districts.

The practice started in 1828, in Plymouth, but by the 1930s there were said to be 1,500 such Johnnies in the UK, so named because many were called Jean, says The Observer. And yes, they did wear striped T-shirts and berets and oui, oui, they did drape their large rose-coloured onions on strings over their traditional bikes.

By the 1970s, however, numbers had fallen to about 150. Now there are but 15 registered Johnnies, cut by the rising cost of short-term lodging in London. But few Johnnies think they will last another year. Why? The headlong retreat of sterling versus the euro. Two years ago, a euro was worth GBP1.55, now it is near parity, making the onions less palatable to Les Anglais.

Emmanuel Lemoach, from Roscoff, Brittany, says he used to sell 40 to 50 strings a day, at GBP3.50 (HK$40) a string (about 1.5kg), mainly to upmarket restaurants. Now he says he is lucky to sell 25.

Mr Lemoach's quandary is matched by Marcel, a cheese seller whose family trades twice a week at Chapel Street market in Islington, north London, and Borough Market near London Bridge.

'Sales have plummeted,' he says. 'My cheese from Normandy was always a little more expensive. It's French, so it is good quality and made by small producers but people loved that. Now, with the British economy and the tumble in the pound, fewer Anglais can afford it.