Dr Johnson’s London

Dr Johnson’s London

Liza Picard

Everyday Life in 18th Century London

The practical realities of everyday life are rarely described in history books. To remedy this, and to satisfy her own curiosity about the lives of our 18th century ancestors, Liza Picard immersed herself in contemporary sources – diaries and journals, almanacs and newspapers, government papers and reports, advice books and memoirs – to examine the physical substance of life in mid-18th century London: houses, gardens, transport and traffic; occupations and work, pleasure and amusements; health, medicine and hospitals; sex and food, clothes and fashion; education, manners and etiquette; crime and punishment.

This book spans the period 1740 to 1770 – very much the city of Dr Johnson, who published his great ‘Dictionary’ in 1755. It starts when the gin craze was gaining ground and ends when the east coast of America was still British.

This was London as Dr Johnson saw it in the 1700s. Experience it too