Savoy Chip Shop, Wigan

Fish and chips began gaining popularity as an affordable treat in the 19th century. In his 1937 book The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell described fish and chips as one of the cheap luxuries that appeased the masses and ‘averted revolution’.

Though born in the USA, Adamson grew up in Wigan. He is well known as an illustrator and cartoonist. His drawings appear in publications including Punch, The Tatler and Bystander, and Private Eye. Between 1946 and 1953 Adamson taught engraving and illustration at Exeter School of Art.

Visual description: Black and white soft-ground etching of the interior of a fish and chip shop. The perspective is from behind the counter, where a woman is holding a chip scoop in front of her face and resting her other hand on a surface behind her. A vinegar bottle and saltshaker sit on the counter, where a customer is leaning, her head propped up by her hand. A third woman is in the shop, behind the server, looking out the window where a street is visible.