costermonger

thumb|"Mush-fakers" and ginger-beer makers at Clapham Common, 1877 by John Thomson A costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables in British towns. The term is derived from the words costard (a medieval variety of apple) and monger (seller), and later came to be used to describe hawkers in general. Some historians have noted a class hierarchy in which the costermonger sold from a handcart or animal-drawn cart, while the lower-level hawker carried wares in a basket.

Costermongers distributed food rapidly from wholesale markets (in London: Smithfield for meat, Spitalfields for fruit and vegetables, Billingsgate for fish) to convenient locations for the labouring classes. Costermongers used a variety of devices to transport and display produce: a cart stood stationary at a market stall; a horse-drawn or wheelbarrow cart made the rounds; or a hand-held basket carried around light-weight goods such as herbs and flowers.