Fake History Hunter

This article was originally a thread on social media, which is why it is formatted with lots of images and short responses.
The text is about the image below that paragraph.

A woman sells chocolate on the street in Kensington, London, 1930s. Image credit: Mary Evans Picture Library Before basic state pensions looked properly after those who deserved to take it easy, many had to work as long as they could just to get by.

Let’s do some analysing.
Rolo, Mars, Milky way, Nestlé, Kit Kat, and all in display boxes, so she buys in bulk, she’s not doing this for just a special rare occasion or some sort of event, this is her job;

She came well prepared, this is probably her regular spot, she has brought string to tie the table to the fence and perhaps she placed fabric over the fence to be a little sheltered from the wind:

Is she selling sticks? I like to imagine they’re arrows 😉

She came well prepared but there’s no chair, probably didn’t fit on the cart and the crate could be used to put her stock in. The shoes look like they’ve seen better days.
And she’s wearing spats, it must be so cold;

She’s wearing some sort of fur mitten or glove, but it looks odd. She uses some sort of cape or cloak, or an apron as a cover to stay a bit warmer, the button there shows us it’s not just a blanket:

A pretty hat, a woollen throw, her coat still looks good.
Does this show us she’s known better days?

Poor old thing has a cane, walking is a bit more difficult these days.
There she is, in the cold, having trouble walking, but going to her spot, regularly, to sell candy:

After a bit of research this was found, sure sounds like our lady;

Both she and her husband were chocolate sellers, I wonder if they did alternating days on the same spot or had two separate spots.

It looks like my assumption that she had a difficult life was correct. In 1922 her husband, a disabled soldier who sold chocolate got in trouble with the wholesaler he worked for when he couldn’t pay for his stock because he “had to spend it to live”. 😦

A bit more about poor old Charles:

But then Mary met a princess…

And Mary became a bit of a well known character, which I’m sure helped her sell some extra candy:

15 years later, in 1937 we find Mary and the princess in a Canadian newspaper.
They seemed to have struck up a little friendship. The princess had a dog named Bob. And nannies are terrible because they have wacky ideas about children not eating candy:

Wait, WHAT?!! There’s a painting of Mary?!! We have to find it!

Look at that, I’ve found another picture of her:

The Disney level in this story is getting a bit too much for me, I can almost hear Mary, I imagine her having a cockney accent now. I’ve got something in my eye:

I think this is related to Mary’s husband war injury: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10642833
Disgusting that those who risk it all for their country were/are not properly looked after when the war ends. A veteran shouldn’t have to sell candy in the street to survive:

John got a medal, I wonder if they managed to hold on to it or if it was pawned. Maybe it’s still in the desk drawer of one of their relatives:

John’s story ended in 1945. At least he witnessed the end of the Second World War:

Another photo was found:

I don’t know about you, maybe I’m just a softie, but I’d be such a good customer of Mary. She deserved a much more comfortable old age, but I would have loved to buy tons of her candy and taking nieces and nephews to meet her. So many kids must have had nice memories of Mary.

This new photo has some more nice details on it for us to explore.
To me this looks like the handles of a handcart! Can you imagine the old lady packing up all that stuff and then pushing the cart home?
I’d find it impossible not to offer my assistance:

This looks like her bag:

She also sells postcards or tourist pictures, smart!

He got himself a chocolate bar and now he’s going to play with his boat in the fountain. What a different world it was.
We’ve just read about poor Mary’s terrible life, yet that stupid Nostalgia muscle in my brain is still tingling:

The Mr. Wheelerbread who got wounded and had a medal lived too long ago for him to be our Charles John Wheelerbread:

In think this might be the painting mentioned earlier;

From what we found we know they lived at 13 Edge Street, today the building no longer exists, it stood where the blue tiled building now stands:

It may have looked like this house across the street, today it has a value of over 1 million pounds:

It’s a small but nice looking house, however in 1939 the Wheelerbreads shared the house with three other elderly people:

So far my research and the contributions made by my followers on Twitter.