August 2, 2008: Beer Street & Gin Lane

Beer Street and Gin Lane are a pair of 1751 engravings by William Hogarth in support of the then-proposed Gin Act 1751. This Act of Parliament made the distillation of gin illegal in England. Beer Street shows a happy city drinking the ‘good’ beverage of English beer, whereas Gin Lane claims to show what would happen if people started drinking gin, a harder liquor. People are shown as healthy, happy and hard working in Beer Street, while in Gin Lane they are scrawny, lazy and acting carelessly, including a drunk mother accidentally sending her baby tumbling to its doom.

I guess Gin was an Indian plot to overthrow the Empire. ;)

Gin was invented to make tonic water more palatable, thus encouraging people to thwart malaria.

*smiles* I love Hogarth.

He was probably drunk on gin when the English beer lobbyists bribed him to draw that.

Hogarth is someone I always reference when middle England start their going to hell in a handbasket rants.

In fact the best line in Oliver! is when one of the urchins says, "'Ey Fagin, these sausages are mouldy!" and he replies, "Shaddup an' drink yer gin!"

Btw - happy and hardworking seems to mostly be the women getting pawed by the fat lazy men. As ever it was.

That whole Gin Act thing got quite nasty. Led to the Gordon Riots.

Apparently even the buildings are unstable when people are drinking gin!

Unlike the sturdy, Beer street buildings, which are strong enough to hold several beer-contaminated citizens up on the roof for some reason. What do they think they are...sheep??

I wanted to take a closer look at the pawn-broker and I found high quality, high resolution [4000x4600] images of prints of the etchings of Gin Lane & Beer Street.

Unlike the sturdy, Beer street buildings, which are strong enough to hold several beer-contaminated citizens up on the roof for some reason. What do they think they are...sheep??

No, they're bulls (John Bull).

Not papal bulls?

Uhuh, papal bulls would be shit, they'd be useless at the first sign of rain.

oh.....papAL...

PayPal?

For use on Ebay? That makes sense.

My last name is Hogarth, I've been told that we are related to William somewhere along the line. Not sure how true that is though.

This is the oldest IOTD I've ever seen...

Do I spy Queen Mum somewhere? :lol:

This is what I've been trying to tell people all along: with beer you can still balance that basket of dead fish on your head while your husband looks lovingly over your shoulder.

I have thought about these paintings on and off since they are posted. Anywhere I can see a larger better shot of the paintings?

Slight posted Hi-Res links in post #8.

Thanks.