This is my third post about Victorian London, inspired by Dickens’
Sketches by Boz, for the Victorian Celebration. If this is your first visit,
you can find our two previous excursions to Victorian London, where you can find
The Amusements of 19th century Londoners in one of them, and
come to learn The Occupations of Londoners at that era, in the other.
Today I will take you to see few famous Streets
of 19th century London, as well as Shops where mid-class Londoners used to spend their money at. Here
they are… [click the picture to enlarge]
The slum district of
Seven Dials
 |
| Henry Rushbury
Seven Dials, London in 1744 circa 1930 [source] |
Seven Dials is a small but well-known road junction in the
West End of London in Covent Garden where seven streets converge. At the centre
of the roughly-circular space is a pillar bearing six (not seven) sundials, a
result of the pillar being commissioned before a late stage alteration of the
plans from an original six roads. [wiki].
However, in the early of 19th century, Seven Dials became a slum
district of London, which Dickens described as:
“The stranger who
finds himself in the Dials for the first time...at the entrance of seven
obscure passages, uncertain which to take, will see enough around him to keep
his curiosity and attention awake for no inconsiderable time...” ~p. 69.
 |
Dudley St., Seven Dials, 1872 [ source] |
Second hand wearing
apparel shops in Monmouth Street
In 19th century, Monmouth Street is famously known
as the emporium of second hand wearing apparel. In this chapter, Dickens
specifically brought our imagination to what had happened in a second hand
shoes store. But for now, let us entertain ourselves with this picture of a
second hand clothes store:
Pawnbroker shop
Pawnbrokers, referred to as ‘uncle’, were the poor person’s
bank. Clothing and jewellery were handed over in exchange for a loan. If the
loan was not repaid within a year, ‘uncle’ could sell the goods. By 1900 there
were 700 pawnbrokers in London. Forfeited articles for sale in this window
include Sunday best clothing, wedding gifts and ornaments. [
source]
 |
| the counter in a pawnbroker shop |
If you look at the image, the counter at the customer side
are divided into several small sub-counter, separated each other with partition.
It is built like that to give privacy for people who don’t want others to know
that they had a transaction in pawnbroker shop (who knows the guys next to them
are their acquaintances?). Pawnbroker shops usually have two entrances. The
front one was for shoppers who wanted to buy the sold goods in fair price, the
back entrance was for customers who wanted to exchange their belongings for
some loan.
 |
| The front entrance of pawnbroker shop with its glass window display |
Maybe George Cruikshank illustration for Sketches by Boz can reflect the more real atmosphere inside a pawnbroker shop...
Oyster shops
In the 19th century, there were three oyster capitals in the
world: London is one of them, with Paris and New York as the others.
I found this in a blog post about oyster shop in 19
th
century in London: “Astonishing though it is now, at the beginning of the 19th
century oysters were cheap and very much a working class food. I suppose the
change must have been well underway when Sheeky's oyster bar opened at the end
of the 19th century. Joseph Sheekey was the market stall-holder who in 1893 was
graciously allowed by Lord Salisbury to sell fish and shellfish on his new
manor of St Martin's Court, provided he served meals to Salisbury's
theatre-going pals. These days its reputation seems a little variable.” [
source]
The front of an oyster shop looked perhaps like this:
And this was a stall selling oysters.
Gin shops
A gin palace is an English name originally for a lavish bar
selling gin, later transferred by association to late Victorian pubs designed
in a similar style. In the 18th century, gin shops or 'dram shops' were just
small shops (often originally chemist's shops as gin originally had medicinal
associations) that sold gin mostly to take away, or to drink standing up. In
the late 1820s the first 'Gin Palaces' were built, Thompson and Fearon's in
Holborn and Weller's in Old Street, London. They were based on the new
fashionable shops being built at the time, fitted out at great expense and lit
by gas lights. They were thought to be vulgar at the time, although hugely
popular. [wiki]
From Sketches by Boz: “The
gin-shops in and near Drury-Lane, Holborn, St. Giles's, Covent-garden, and
Clare-market, are the handsomest in London. There is more of filth and squalid
misery near those great thorough-fares than in any part of this mighty city.”
For his sketch, Dickens picked a large bar in Drury Lane as a setting of a gin
shop.
“... All is light and
brilliancy. The hum of many voices issues from that splendid gin-shop which
forms the commencement of the two streets opposite; and the gay building with
the fantastically ornamented parapet, the illuminated clock, the plate-glass
windows surrounded by stucco rosettes, and its profusion of gas-lights in
richly-gilt burners, is perfectly dazzling when contrasted with the darkness
and dirt we have just left.”
 |
The Dram-drinker by Kenny Meadows [ source] |
From both images, I see that children are allowed to be in gin shops with their parents! What a bad habit they had already been introduced in their young age!
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent
Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern
part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of
Westminster. In the 17th century it was the London house of the Earl of Craven,
then a public house under the sign of his reputed mistress, the Queen of
Bohemia, but by the 18th century Drury Lane had become one of the worst slums
in London, dominated by prostitution and gin palaces. [wiki]
I especially picked Drury Lane among other streets, because
this street appeared quite often in Dickens’ sketches. The scenes of both gin
shop and pawnbroker shop were located in Drury Lane, and the story in which Dickens
described about oyster shop had also mentioned Drury Lane (but it’s not the
oyster shop’s location).
Note: In the process of searching an image of Drury Lane, I
came across
this site which is exhibiting the paintings of Louise Rayner. The
theme is about 19th century London, and they are all very beautiful!!! Louise can picture
the scene as if we are there ourselves. So, before we end our today’s outing,
let me take you to London on 19
th century through these lovely
pictures….
Don’t forget, next week is our last outing to Victorian
London. I will prepare some means of transportations so that you don’t have to
tiring yourself during our excursion J. See you next week!
At first I
thought Dorian Gray will be quite fast, for it is only 256 pages. However after
finishing chapter 1, I soon realized that this is a book that you must digest
slowly to be able to get the best of it. If book is a drink, Dorian Gray is a
cup of coffee…instead of drinking it in gulps, you should take it sip by sip,
while savouring the bitter-sweet taste, feeling the warmth liquid flowing
through your throat and inhaling the sweet fragrance that come into your
nostrils. There are many aspects in a cup of coffee that you can enjoy, which,
if you drink it in a hurry, you will lose the sensation! J
(writing this made me crave for a cup of coffee!). 
