Beer Street and Gin Lane
Beer, happy Produce of our Isle
Can sinewy Strength impart,
And wearied with Fatigue and Toil
Can cheer each manly Heart
Hogarth was the man who chronicled London in the 18th Century - a proto blogger, if you will. His engravings often had a moral to them - this is the idyll of Beer Street, compared to the terror of Gin Lane. At the time, everyone drank beer, water wasn't safe, and gin was seen as evil.
This is in Hogarth's House, which you can visit and I recommend that you do. I don't need to tell you much more, because Diamond Geezer did so yesterday, so I'll just add a picture of the detail of Gin Lane here, so you can see Hogarth's astonishing talent and a picture of the house here. You can see bit of the 300 year old mulberry tree on the left, the berries are truly fantastic - expect to get in an awful mess.
Actually, there is one little bit I could add...it always amuses me when I hear the traffic announcement about the "jams at the Hogarth Roundabout" (this is a notorious black spot) .... how small a percentage of listeners will know why it is called that. You all do now, though.
See where on London Daily Photo Map
posted by Ham at 01:18 --
Comments here: 8
Comments on "Beer Street and Gin Lane"
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Anonymous said ... (10:26) :
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John Nez said ... (14:49) :
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Ham said ... (15:37) :
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JaamZIN said ... (16:25) :
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Chaz said ... (16:59) :
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punkinsmom said ... (04:45) :
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Anonymous said ... (10:52) :
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cannopa said ... (14:57) :
post a commentI think this country, perhaps your country as well, are on their way to drinking beer again as water becomes contaminated with everything from pesticides to poisons.
Who will record it?
You must have passed the DG on the way out...
Awfully short looking stories in that Hogarth house. It seems the top floors must not be more than 7 feet from floor to ceiling... or maybe the photo is misleading.
Luv your London Daily Photo Map... only it seems the links to your blog pages don't seem to work when I click on the blue marker and then click on the blog link on the blue marker popup.
OML, we are the recorders, the eye at the centre of the hurricane.
John, tbh, I was there some months ago, when the mulberries were just ready to eat. And yes, it is an odd little house.
LDP Map works for me.... email me with what you're doing (sounds fine, I would have said) and I'll see if I can replicate.
I like very much these old illustrations. Greetings from Budapest:)
When I was at the College of Law in Guildford there was a mulbery bush around the same age. I don't know how accurate this story is but I was told that hundreds of them were planted around the same time for silk worm production. Unfortunatley, the fruiting tree doesn't feed the silkworms. Good for jam, though...
This photo of an etching was, in part, an ispiration for my Thanksgiving Wiki-maze. You can see that Gin Lane is one of the stops.
I remember visiting Hogarth House a few years ago. I loved the place; the old museum warden was a very kind man; but oh, the traffic noise was just omnipresent! It would drive me mad to live there.
You photo reminds me of a very old book we used to have in the family. It was large heavy book, about 30" x 20" x 3" I guess and titled "The Complete Works of Hogarth" if I recall correctly.
As a child it was fascinating to browse through, although not understanding a lot of the subliminal messages in the etchings (nor some of the more overt ones either !).
It did mean though I could validly say when I was older "Would you like to come home and see my etchings?" ;-)