Gin Lane by Hogarth
Beer Street and Gin Lane are two prints issued in 1751 by English artist William Hogarth in support of what would become the Gin Act.
Designed to be viewed alongside each other, they depict the evils of the consumption of gin as a contrast to the merits of drinking beer.
The Government from 1689 onward had encouraged gin production and consumption for economic reasons, but by the 1730s concern was growing over the terrible cost of alcohol addiction amongst the poor. By 1750, over a quarter of all residences in St Giles parish in central London were gin shops, and most of these also operated as receivers of stolen goods and centres of prostitution.
Hogarth, well-known for his satirical prints about the behaviour of all levels of English society, contributed to the gin debate with these two prints.
The most prominent figure in Gin Lane, which is set in St Giles, is a woman who, addled by gin and driven to prostitution by her habit — as evidenced by the syphilitic sores on her legs — lets her baby slip unheeded from her arms and plunge to its death in the stairwell of the gin cellar below. Hogarth’s imagination was inspired by real cases of drunken women neglecting or murdering infants at this time.
Further Reading
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