Sour to the people

Vibrant, tangy and full of flavour, malt vinegar is still the best British condiment to slosh over hot fish and chips

- Rob Crossan

Victorian London was a city brimming with odours, stenches, aromas and whiffs that could make the eyes of a grown man water. However, spare a thought for those who lived within septum-grazing distance of a certain factory on Tanner Street in Bermondsey. From the early 19th century, this was where huge vats of vinegar were kept in maltings that operated rather like breweries, the main difference being that of timing. Simply put, if you leave beer for long enough—as anyone who has worked in a pub will know—it turns into something approaching malt vinegar.

The Tanner Street factory was owned by Sarson’s, a family firm with origins that date back to 1794 when Thomas Sarson began brewing vinegar, chiefly to be used for preserving foods in an era many decades away from the fridge freezer. Even then, a new use for the produce pouring out of those vats was coming into view. The origins of fish and chips are much debated, but one predominant theory is that fried fish was popular in London as early as the 16th century, when it was beloved of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Portugal and Spain.

In 1837, Dickens refers to a ‘fried-fish warehouse’, in