"Now bring us some figgy pudding..."
Discover a legend in it's own time - the London Transport Christmas Pudding! Perhaps you'll even try to make one??
"For we all like figgy pudding,
For we all like figgy pudding,
For we all like figgy pudding.
So bring some out here."
So the carol "We wish you a Merry Christmas" goes
And for many years, the staff of this organisation were certainly fans of Christmas pudding. Not just any Christmas pudding though - our catering team's very own Christmas Pudding. In 1968, the staff collectively placed orders for 30,000 of them!
The London Transport Christmas Pudding seems to have originated with a man called Fred William Strahan. Fred lived in New Cross and learned to cook in the 'Pearce and Plenty' kitchens of the East End
Fred became the Canteen Steward at Cricklewood and Catford bus garages in 1914, just before the outbreak of the WWI, and he was soon promoted to Steward Inspector at the outbreak of the war.
Christmas hampers (1917-12-25)TfL Corporate Archives
Fred started making a Christmas pudding for staff, according to his own recipe, and with an idea that a pudding could be sent to the staff who were overseas fighting at Christmastime. So, this is what the organisation did. And in 1915, 1,500 Christmas puddings were made and sent
Production ceased at the end of WWI. Christmas puddings were still produced in the garage canteens and soon became available for purchase - between 17,000 and 20,000 sold in 1938.
When war broke out again in 1939, the idea of sending the puddings to the staff serving overseas was re-introduced. Between 1939 and 1945, 3 out of every 4 Christmas puddings that the canteens made were being sent to staff who were on service overseas
Fred retired in 1944 and we assume that his recipe got passed on in one way or another: a canteen representative told the staff magazine in 1945 that the recipe was "our own", that had been drawn up "years ago".
By 1947 it was decided to make the Christmas puddings on a full-scale commercial basis, and so the Christmas puddings became available to order by the staff.
Staff Member with Christmas Puddings (1968) by London Transport ExecutiveTfL Corporate Archives
Due to their association with wartime and memories of home comforts, many staff and their families had a great deal of affection for the Christmas puddings. The organisation had a ready-made and loyal customer base, that would perpetuate over the years!
Christmas at Croydon Food Production Centre (1954) by London Transport ExecutiveTfL Corporate Archives
As soon as they were available, order forms would come flooding into the catering department. In 1973 for example, 35,000 London Transport Christmas puddings were made to order. This was an output of 25 tons of Christmas pudding - the equivalent in weight to 3 Routemaster buses!
The last recorded mention of the Christmas puddings was in 1983. That doesn't necessarily mean that was the last time they were produced, that's just the last recorded mention of them in the archives.
Sadly, we don't have Fred's original recipe, but we do have recipes for the Christmas pudding in the staff magazines. They were given in a slightly clever way to try to prevent too many people making them at home instead of buying them. They only gave bulk recipes!
Would you like to guess at how many puddings this particular recipe would produce, based on dividing the mixture into 2lb pudding basins?
Recipe for LT Christmas Pudding (1968-12-01)TfL Corporate Archives
This bulk recipe would produce 160 Christmas puddings. When you think that in the 1970s the canteens were producing 35,000 of them, you get a good idea of just how many ingredients the organisation was buying to make these Christmas puddings.
And estimation of demand for the puddings wasn't always right. In 1974, the canteens were so overwhelmed with demand that orders had to stop being taken!
Fortunately, Christmas puddings often improve with time and so production would often begin in April - months before order forms were even issued.
Hopefully, the staff weren't lined up outside crying:
"And we won't go until we got some.
And we won't go until we got some,
And we won't got until we got some,
So bring some out here!"
