A shortage in eels is driving up the cost of the cockney favourite, with fears they might be off the menu soon.

Overfishing has seen supplies of the snake-like fish fall by 98 per cent in the last five years.

Eel numbers have also been affected by pollution and a loss of habitat.

Max, manager of Cockneys in Frith Road, Croydon, said: “There’s been a big inflation of price. When I first started you could get a pound of eels for £2. It is now more than three times as much.

“It has affected the business as about 15 per cent of my customers are for eels.

“They are holding back on buying pie, eel and mash because of the price.

“We have got to have them as we are an eel, pie and mash shop.”

Max said customers who tried eels for the first time either loved them or hated them.

He added: “There’s no in between.

“But eels are versatile – you can steam, smoke or fry them.

“But we do Cockney favourite jellied eels.

The European Eel only spawns in the Sargasso Sea in the middle of the Atlantic, and cannot be bred in captivity or sustainably farmed.

Chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay have been criticised by conservationists for serving eel.

Smoked eel is a delicacy in Germany and Holland, and the Japanese enjoy '"glass eels" - young eels in a spaghetti-like dish.