Meet Tottie Fay

[Suzi]

A MOST alarming Swell I say!!! Matron!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or maybe Its that Fid Len E. Bhat fellow........ he of the little known graffito fame!

I put it all down to the check trousers....shades of CoCo aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Gideon Fell

'Tottie Fay' was first connected with 'Fairy Fay' by the authors of the A to Z in 1994, page 138.

You are absolutely correct. Well spotted.

Wolf.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

Just came to my mind about this "Victim With No Name", to whom the Fairy Fay character is based on;

Were there any contemporary illustrations of this 1887 "victim"?

All the best
Jukka

[DVV]

I don't think so, Jukka.

In any case, this "1887 victim" didn't exist at all until September 1888 (when she's first mentioned in some newspapers).

Amitiés,
David

[Chava]

Point of information: the word referred to by Anna above is in fact 'tut' and you'll hear Sir Alan Sugar say it all the time on The Apprentice. However it's Jewish slang, not Cockney slang, and I've never ever heard it outside London Jewish circles. Nor have I ever heard 'tuttie'.

[anna]

Hi Chava,

Perhaps because I am not jewish I haven't heard of the word "tut"...so I would take it that "toot"was what I was hearing,but there is definitely the word"toot"..a cockney word for a cheap bit of "tat" which is what I thought Sir Allen says when he refers to items bought by teams in their challenges as being of a cheap or tasteless quality.(tat is also used for "tatters"..a quote from a famous music hall song used at the beginning of Michael Palins brilliant film "The Missionary"..if you haven't seen that film,it's a must for those interested in "victorian" themes...very funny...google it in everyone,and have a laugh...anyway Chava..I presume tatters was also slang for clothes in the VP)there is also the word "tatty"....elongated from the word tat above..clothes or other items well worn and past their best days.
Being a cockney myself I still use the words toot,tat and tatty nowadays..although not in reference to the goods on my market stall which are of high quality and extremely good taste !!!!!!!!!!!!
Anna.

[Chava]

'Tat' for sure! 'Tut' I'm certain at least got its start among the Jews of the East End, and 'tut' is what my friends' parents used to call the clobber we bought from Biba in the 60s. It's just a variant of the word, and it's pejorative for sure. However I doubt that 'Tottie' comes from 'tatty'!

[Debra A]

Photograph of Tottie Fay taken in Broadmoor asylum, 1894.

[Robert]

She probably got to wear better clothes in there than on the outside.

[Elenahoyos66]

What a classy lookin' dame! haha