Fish and chip shops were originally small family businesses, often run from the ‘front room’ of the house and were commonplace by the late 19th century Britain. Through the latter part of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, the fish and chip trade expanded greatly to satisfy the needs of the growing industrial population of Great Britain. In fact you might say that the Industrial Revolution was fuelled partly by fish and chips. The development of the steam trawler delivered fish from all over the North Atlantic, Iceland and Greenland and the steam railways allowed easy and fast distribution of the fish around the country.