British Picnics Come of Age: Food and Fashionability in the 1930s

Abstract

Picnics are an ephemeral feature of social life and suggest a meal that is different in form, eaten in unfamiliar surroundings, and often representing an escape from routine. Although picnics might be regarded as a longstanding tradition in Britain, they were popularized in the 1930s as an adjunct to substantial changes in leisure patterns, and by the opportunities provided by private and public transport. Newspapers reflected this popularity in their coverage. Using digital archive material, primarily for The Times and the Manchester Guardian, period newspaper reports were analyzed in terms of popularity, advice on what to eat, the consumer market for equipment, and rural impact. Picnics, goods, and services connected with them, and the negative environmental consequences of picnicking were regular features of media discourse during the period 1930–1939: this coverage represent a window into the perhaps surprising fashionability of what is now a tacit feature of food culture.