Blog Review: Georgian London

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18th century London

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uploaded by Mike Surrey

Type history blogs into your search engine and you are likely to be swamped by “This Day in History” offerings with the only alternative being long dry offerings of univeristy professors often with their own version of history.

Lucy Inlis' Georgian London is a happy exception. The blog, which is the winner of Best Individual Blog and Best New Blog of 2009 at the Cleopatra Awards in San Diego, is remarkable look at life in 18th century London.

This was at time of expansion for the great city due in part to the initial sparks of the industrial revolution, new ideas, and the wide dissemination of news thanks to the printing press and growing literacy.

Crime, reicpies, shopping, sports, the bizarre and even the weather are just a few topics written about in a friendly and interesting style with relavancy to today's events. The current cold snap in Britain would have been nothing new to 18th century Londoners. “Three hundred years ago, the City of London froze regularly between December and March, and the 1690s recorded six winters when the temperature was consistently below 3'C for more than three months; definitely the sort of weather when a man like Samuel Pepys would have worn two shirts, a waistcoat and a jacket. The streets weren't salted, but many were paved so they became treacherous in freezing weather. Horses had sacks tied to their metal-shod feet, and 'slippers' fitted to the wheels of their vehicles to prevent dangerous sliding. Working men wore hobnailed boots, sometimes with sacking tied over them (with the studs poking through) for a bit of extra grip. Many gentlemen would resort to them in freezing weather, although the sacking was unlikely. Women did not wear pattens in icy conditions (I have tried on a pair of pattens and attempted to walk around in them, and I am not convinced anyone wore them in the street let alone worked in them as they are lethal). Where the streets and passages were just mud or dirt and on the banks of the Thames, duckboards were put down for people to walk over. It was not uncommon to find vagrants, or unfortunates who had frozen during the night, including one man in the Fleet ditch, discovered standing upright, but dead and solid. The price of coal rose, and the poorest Londoners had to cut wood from the common land, if they hadn't already.”

The blog has many fascinating images. Archives, RSS Icon and contact links are easy to find, and comments are welcome.

Georgian London is well worth a regular visit on your cyber journey.