Book Review: "London" by Peter Ackroyd (Pt. 5)

During a section aptly named Voracious London, I was shocked to learn how historical the state of London drunkenness actually was. Gin palaces, taverns, ale houses, public houses and everything in between were ripe and fitted for the 18th and 19th centuries. Clubs and pubs were everywhere and how. Men, women and often children would take up their drinks and their activities within and there was a club for just about everything on a weekly basis. Ackroyd tells funny tales of people being arrested for drunkenness but even I know that it wasn't uncommon for people to go out drinking in London and then because it was dark, fall tipsy into the Thames. Honestly, it was a funny few chapters in which I had a good laugh at things about how rowdy and obnoxious London was back then - even though every time I have been it definitely still is now. It just doesn't have the same allure and draw to it - it's just expensive for no reason.

But just when we thought we were finished with how terrifyingly loud and rambunctious London was, we are then introduced to gambling. Now, even though many people saw London as the drinking capital in the world with even Dostoevsky in the Haymarket commenting on the fact that people couldn't wait to get wasted, gambling was a huge addiction for people. We can see that today, gambling is still in full swing unfortunately. From gambling and prostitution to sex and drugs, there are many parralels that we can draw between our own London and the London of the past. Ackroyd is basically trying to get us to realise that 18th and 19th century London is not very different to 21st Century London and it's working.

The next vice we cover is of course, tobacco. Tobacco became popular of course, during the time of Queen Elizabeth I and then later, disgusted James I before becoming hugely popular again. What it looks like to the on-looker from our own time is that the life of the average Londoner who was perhaps a little further below the poverty line than he thought, was so abysmal that any kind of vice to take the edge off was considered good. This is the advertising being put out to these people. Drinking was to take the edge off, gambling was a game to take the edge off, tobacco also took the edge off. One thing I was surprised by though is that you could actually buy tobacco at apothecaries and it was (and I shit you not) an anti-phlegmatic medicine. Tobacco. Anti-sickness. Right. It amazes me how these people would make clay pipes and just smoke tobacco basically all day. Yes it would take the edge off, but perhaps nobody seemed to see the addictive qualities of it.

After this we have the smell of London. It must have smelt awful, apart from probably the old bakeries. Ackroyd takes us through the smells and scents, the odours of the taverns and the tanneries, the scent of bread baking and the horrors of burning coal throughout the industrial revolution. To top all of this off, there must have been some sort of thin layer of tobacco smoke coating everything as even children smoked pipes (and in school too!). I honestly think this abhorrent behaviour shouldn't be done anywhere around children and if you smoke and you can help it, stay far away from anyone under the age of 18. Lungs are developing and should not be primed for passive smoking.

There were many things to do to wind down in London but tea was another thing that was at first, considered as bad as alcohol. Tea was considered addictive and a nightmare - people were even dying from drinking too much of it. But at least tea didn't make your behaviour unbecoming. Instead people would report feeling 'at ease' - there it is again, taking the edge off. People would drink tea all throughout dinner times, meals and evenings. It was definitely considered one of those drinks that was dangerous and harmful like all the other vices. Ackroyd tells us about how tea was sold and drank to excess and well, we all can see why when you live in the dumpster that is Industrial London.

As we move through the book, I genuinely hope there is still much fun to be had. I know there are multiple parts to this review and I hope you're still as excited as me. Please, if you want to give this big book a go, then I would highly encourage it.