Showing posts with label Mayor's Walk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mayor's Walk. Show all posts

Tuesday 9 November 2021

Skulferatu #49 - Nightly Bile Beans Sign, Lord Mayor's Walk, York

 

On my many trips to York I have often passed by the painted sign on this side wall for Bile Beans.

 

A picture of a red, brick building by a road.  There is a yellow sign painted on it with black lettering that reads - Nightly Bile Beans keep you Healthy Bright-Eyed & Slim.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Nightly Bile Beans sign in York

 

A close up picture of a red, brick building by a road.  There is a yellow sign painted on it with black lettering that reads - Nightly Bile Beans keep you Healthy Bright-Eyed & Slim.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Nightly Bile Beans sign in York

 

I always visualised Bile Beans as being an inferior alternative to those produced in a delicious tomatoey sauce by Mr Heinz and thought the tag underneath about keeping you ‘healthy, bright-eyed and slim’ was along the lines of the rhyme we all knew from school.  You know the one –

 

Beans Beans, they’re good for your heart

The more you eat the more you fart

The more you fart the better you feel

So, eat beans with every meal.

 

It turns out though, that Bile Beans weren’t something you had on your toast or with a pie and mashed potato but were rather a quack medicine.  They weren’t beans in the way we think of them, as the beans being referred to were actually bean shaped pills.

 

Bile Beans were the invention of a charlatan and con man called Charles Edward Fulford, a Canadian who had moved to Australia.  Fulford had worked for a time in a pharmacists and had obviously seen that there was money to be made in medicine, potions, and cure-alls.  While in Australia he teamed up Ernest Albert Gilbert, who ran a stationary business in New South Wales, and they decided to set up as medicine and pill manufacturers.   Their first foray into the world of miracle cures was ‘Gould’s Tiny Tonic Pills’.  These were purported to cure everything from ‘female weakness’ to ‘influenza’ to ‘lack of ambition’.  However, the pills were not a success, so Fulford came up with another formula and a new name – ‘Chas Forde’s Bile Beans’.

 

Bile Beans were advertised as having been created by Charles Forde, an eminent and skilled scientist.  He had carried out research into a natural vegetable substance used by the Aboriginal people to keep themselves healthy and through this research had come up with a wonder pill to cure many ailments.  Charles Forde did not exist, both he and his research being made up by Fulford.   

 

An advert for Bile Beans in the Belfast Telegraph - 13 May 1904.  The main headline reads Bile Beans for Biliousness with a small article about the benefits of Bile Beans.
An advert for Bile Beans in the Belfast Telegraph - 13 May 1904

 

Through a huge advertising campaign under the catchy slogan of ‘Bile Beans for Biliousness’ (Yeah, Beanz Meanz Heinz is so much better), the sale of Bile Beans took off and soon they were being sold all over the world.  In 1899 Fulford and Gilbert opened a factory in Leeds to produce their quack product and kept on with their huge advertising campaign.  Amongst the various claims made for Bile Beans were that they would cure constipation, indigestion, piles, anaemia, headaches, loss of appetite, heavy colds, rheumatism, liver trouble, bad breath, could rid the bowels and blood of impurities and could help you stay slim.

 

An advert for Bile Beans from The Quiver, published in 1909.  The main caption reads 'Health Wrecked by Constipation' with an article purporting to be from a satisfied customer whose ailments were cured by Chas. Forde's Bile Beans.
An advert for Bile Beans in The Quiver – February 1909

 

So, what did this wonder drug do and what was really in it you may ask?  Well, it would appear that the pills acted as a laxative and according to analysis when they were examined for the British Medical Council, they contained aloin (plant extract used as a laxative), cardamom, peppermint oil, wheat flour and extract of colocynth (colocynth being a tropical fruit also called bitter apple, which also appears to have laxative effects).

 

As the success of Bile Beans grew, they attracted several imitators.  One of these being George Davidson, who was producing a product in Edinburgh called Davidson’s Bile Beans. 

 

An advert for Davidson’s Bile Beans in the Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser - 18 December 1908.  Advert gives various ailments the beans will cure which includes biliousness and appendicitis.
An advert for Davidson’s Bile Beans in the Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser - 18 December 1908

 

In 1905 Fulford and Gilbert sought an injunction against Davidson to stop him using the Bile Beans name claiming the name was a registered trademark that they had acquired.  The evidence was then presented to the Court of Session in Edinburgh where it was admitted to the Judges hearing the case that Charles Forde did not exist and the formula for the pill was written by Fulford, who was not an eminent scientist and had made no research into the Australian herbs he claimed made up the ingredients of the pill.  When the case had concluded a written judgement was made by the Judges, who ruled against Fulford and Gilbert, stating in rather scathing terms that – ‘…the complainers (Fulford and Gilbert’s) trade was a fraudulent trade, and that no action ought to be entertained by the courts of Scotland to protect it or the name used in connection with it…

 

However, despite the ruling against them, Bile Beans continued to be sold up until the 1980s, when the product was withdrawn from sale and manufacture ceased.

 

Both Fulford and Gilbert became rich men through the sale of Bile Beans and other dubious products.  When Gilbert died in 1905, aged 30, he left an estate worth around £31,000 (nearly £4,000,000 in today’s money) and when Fulford died in 1906, aged 36, it was reported that he was worth over £61,000 (around £8,000,000 in today’s money).  Given that they both died in their thirties, it would seem that their product didn’t do much good in keeping either of them healthy and bright eyed.

 

An advert for Bile Beans in the Aberdeen People's Journal - 11 February 1939.  It pictures a slim model with an article about using Bile Beans to slim while you sleep.
An advert for Bile Beans in the Aberdeen People's Journal - 11 February 1939

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on my walk in the hollow of a crumbling brick in the wall below the sign.

 

A picture of a hand holding a small ceramic skull with the Bile Beans advert on the side wall of the building in the background.  The ceramic skull being Skulferatu #49.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #49

 

A picture of a small, ceramic skull, Skulferatu #49, in the hollow of a crumbling brick below the sign for Nightly Bile Beans.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #49 in hollow of a crumbling brick below the sign

 

A close up picture of a small, ceramic skull, Skulferatu #49, in the hollow of a crumbling brick below the sign for Nightly Bile Beans.  Photo by Kevin Nosferatu for the Skulferatu Project.
Skulferatu #49 in hollow of a crumbling brick below the sign

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #49 in Mayor's Walk, York.
Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #49

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 53.963638

Longitude -1.078886

 

I used the following sources for information on Bile Beans –

 

Bile Beans for Inner Health by Raymond C. Rowe

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine 17(3-4):137-140

2003

 

The Maitland Weekly Mercury, Saturday 18 December 1897 (Gould’s Tiny Tonic Pills advert)

The Maitland Weekly Mercury, 18 Dec 1897 - Trove (nla.gov.au)

 

More Secret Remedies.  What they Cost and What they Contain.

British Medical association

1912

 

Reports of Patent, Design and Trade Mark Cases, Vol XXIII, No 31

Bile Bean Manufacturing Company v. Davidson

1906

 

Leeds Mercury – Friday, 13 April 1906

Will of late Ernest Albert Gilbert

 

Daily Mirror – Friday, 13 April 1906

£30,000 from Patent Medicine

 

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 10 November 1906

A Patent Medicine Manufacturer’s Bequests

 

Bile Bean adverts from –

Belfast Telegraph – Friday, 13 May 1904

Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser – Friday, 18 December 1908

The Quiver – February 1909

Aberdeen People's Journal – Saturday, 11 February 1939

 

Value of Gilbert and Fulford’s estates in today’s money calculated using the bank of England’s Inflation Calculator

Inflation calculator | Bank of England