18 Folgate Street Daniel Severs House

18 Folgate street was brought to my attention by Melanie of Madame Guillotine who posted about the museum in July.  Perhaps "museum" isn't the right word.  "Art Instillation" would be much more appropriate. 

Dennis Severs bought the dilapidated Georgian house in 1979 and proceeded to transform it into a time capsule by collecting antiques to tell a story in each room.  But they aren't just placed neatly in a room like a historic home.  Instead they are placed in a way which tells a story.  Take for example the drawing room.  Tea is set up in the center of the room, one of the cups is still half full with tea.  Pearl earrings sit beside the cup as if a woman just took them off after a long night of socializing.  Fans sit on chairs and some careless person actually dropped their teacup in the course of the night and the shattered remains are left on the floor.  The effect really makes you feel as though you have traveled back in time. 

There are a few ground rules you should be aware of before visiting.  When you arrive to what looks like any old home you will see a note telling you to ring a bell.  I still am not sure where the bell is but using the door knocker works just as well.  You also have to arrive during the specified hours, so make sure you plan ahead!  After knocking, someone will come out and explain what you're about to do and then tell you to fork over 10 pounds, so be sure to have cash on hand!  Another thing you should know is that there is no talking allowed, not even whispering.  My art historian friend and I got in trouble for this...but honestly two art historians in this house...there is no way we could just point and make faces to each other!  Getting chastised by the workers is also a bit confusing because they don't have uniforms or name tags.  So the girl in the hallway with a messenger bag telling you to shut up; yeah that's an employee.

There are notes and images around the house to give you a feel for what you're walking into.  A reminder note for George IV's coronation is pinned to the door of a regency bedroom.  So you must always be taking in your surroundings.   I found a black cat on a chair and broke another rule by petting it.  That was the first time an exhibition literally ran away from me!

Next time any of you lovers of the 18th and 19th centuries are in London, this house should definitely be on your to do list!

The London Tourist

While visiting with the Branghtons in London, Evelina is introduced to a variety of sites that tourists of the time enjoyed seeing.  Some like the Tower of London are an attraction that is still a must-see for London tourists centuries years later.  Others have been lost to the ages.  So let's use the Braghntons' suggestions to guide us through the amusements that amused 18th century London.

One of the first suggestions was Don Saltero's coffee shop which was more a curiosity cabinet than a coffeeshop.

Sadler's Wells was founded in 1683 when a surveyor discovered a mineral spring there.  It became a fashionable resort for high society but declined in popularity.  It also served as a music hall before becoming a theater and today is a dance house of which there is no mention of any mineral springs on the site. For shame!

"The Monument" is another tourist attraction tourists flock to today.  Erected in 1677 by Christopher Wren, it marks where the Great Fire of London is said to have started.  Visitors could climb to the top to gain an impressive view of the city.  Visitors now can do the same, with the help of a fence around the platform, which was added in the 19th century due to multiple suicides.  Goodness, I wouldn't want to be on that platform without that fence, especially in panniers!

Of course there were the famous pleasure gardens which had both residents and tourists alike flocking to.  Evelina is fortune (or perhaps unfortunate) enough to visit the most famous ones.  Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Marylebone, and Kensington Gardens drew both the upper echelons of society and the prostitutes that fed off them.  Every garden had endless amusements, both in the gardens and in watching the people in attendance at them.

Remember when there were no new television shows during the summer and you had to wait until fall for all the premieres?  So was the case for theater-goers in London.  The theater season began in September and ended in June.  That is, if your theater wasn't "Foote's."  Samuel Foote's theater took advantage of the off season to stage plays for those who remained in London for the summer.

At King's Cross Road one could visit Bagnigge Wells, another fashionable spa which brought the country to London.  One could roam in a honeysuckle covered tea arbour, visit the gardens and fish ponds, skittle alley, bowling green, or bun house.  Just as with any fashionable pump room you could rub shoulders with the elite as well as attend concerts. 

London Lock Hospital

In such a hedonistic century, STDs were far from uncommon.  You could even go as far as saying venereal diseases were a national epidemic.  A big statement, sure, but there were actually hospitals dedicated solely to the treatment of these diseases!

Lock Hospitals came to England in the thirteenth century.  They were mostly for the treatment (if you could call it that) of lepers and evolved to other diseases that were dangerously contagious, hence being "lock" hospitals, to lock up the disease.  By the eighteenth century leprosy wasn't an issue, but syphilis ran rampant.  In 1747 the London Lock Hospital opened.  Like the modern-day health clinics, sufferers of the neither regions who were short of cash could line up in hopes for some sort of relief.  There were thirty clean beds for the patients but this being a time when there was no successful cure of syphilis the hospital probably only served as a place to get out of the rain and a hot meal.

Still, the charity-funded hospital was considered a success in the forward-thinking Age of Enlightenment which had also birthed, the Foundling and Magdalen Hospitals.  In 1792 a sister-hospital opened up, Lock Asylum for the Reception of Penitent Female Patients.  This was a rescue center for fallen women who were treated at the lock hospital and was meant to get them on their feet again.  The lock hospital remained working throughout the centuries, eventually becoming a gynecological center before closing down in the 1950s.

The Tower

An essential tourist attraction to first-time visitors to London is the Tower of London.  Hoards of people visit to see the city's castle which has a long list of famous prisoners.  The same was true of tourists in the eighteenth century.  The Tower was rarely used to house prisoners and, like today, it housed the crown jewels which were on display for the public.  For a small fee you could view the royal jewels, which seems quite daring in the days before CCTV and bullet-proof glass.  A renewed interest in the medieval period and the Gothic also brought visitors into the Tower.

Something that eighteenth-century visitors did get to enjoy that we no longer do in the present age was the Tower's menagerie.  The Royal Menagerie at the Tower had been there for centuries and had an array of amazing animals through its many monarchs such as elephants, leopards, lions, and even a polar bear.  For the small price of 3 half-pence you could gain admission but if you didn't have that kind of money, a cat or dog would suffice.  Why a cat or dog? Well, what else were the lions going to eat? Yikes; I surely wouldn't be there during feeding time, how traumatizing!

Coffee and Spectacle

One of the popular sights for those visiting London was Don Saltero's coffeehouse in Chelsea.  Coffeehouses themselves weren't uncommon, they were popular local hangout where you got the local news and gossip.  Much like today's local pubs or internet social networks, coffeehouses tended to be part of the daily routine.  What set Don Saltero's apart from others was it was both a coffeehouse and museum of curiosities.


Wunderkammer or cabinets of curiosity were popular spectacles for people in the renaissance onward.  For those with enough money to house these collections, wunderkammers could be a time consuming and expensive hobby.  Beside cabinets, whole rooms were dedicated to the marvelous.  What sort of things would you find in these cabinets?  Well it wasn't Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, curiosity cabinets contained many natural objects of beauty.  Shells, rocks, taxidermy, and if you were especially lucky, unicorn narwhal horns.  Many beautiful depictions of these collections can be found in museums.

These were the sort of objects you would find at Don Saltero's although the uniqueness of these being at a coffee house made the place a bit of a tourist trap albeit a good one.  While many 18th century wunderkammers now served as places of study Don Saltero, or James Salter, brought articles of curiosity to the masses for the price of a cup of coffee. 

Salter began as a humble barber in the late 17th century.  He had amassed a decent collection of articles from his old employer, Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum.  Whatever Sloane didn't care for he would hand off to the grateful Salter.  When Salter founded the coffeehouse in 1695 customers were wowed by the rejected articles.  Salter even published catalogs of his collection.  Don Saltero's became such a famous attraction of London that when Salter died in 1768 his daughter took over running the coffeehouse museum.  However, at her death there was no one to continue the care of the business so in 1799 the marvelous collection had to be sold.

Sights of London via Canaletto

When Canaletto, the painter who enamored British tourists with his paintings of Venice, came to London those familiar with his work were excited to see his portrayals of their beloved city.  Strangely enough, critics found Canaletto's depictions of London lackluster in comparison with his former works.  Oh well, I still this they're great, Signore Canal!  I enjoy the sights of London; even those that don't exist any more.  One of the wonderful things about Canaletto and his fellow city-scape painters is that we are transformed to the bustling city, even the parts we, in the 21st century, never got to know.  Here are some of the sights we do know, and how they look now.

The Thames and the City, 1747

Westminster Abbey with a procession of Knights of the Bath, by Canaletto, 1749

Westminster Bridge, 1746

Tyburn, the 'Triple Tree' of Death

For those familiar with London, "Marble Arch" is a familiar facet of the city, whether you know it by the tube stop or by the randomly placed monument.  But long before tourists were wandering the area to gaze on the triumphal arch they were gathering by the hundreds to witness public executions.  For the current location of Marble Arch is roughly located in the same place as the Triple Tree, the massive gallows designed for multiple and very public hangings. 

While many an 18th century highwayman met his end at Tyburn the site had been used for hangings since the medieval period.  At first people would be lynched on the trees bordering the Tyburn river (a lost river which supposedly now flows underground).  In 1571 a more efficient gallows was constructed, its unique form came to be iconic.  Three posts eighteen feet high reached to the sky and met at the top to form a triangle.  The horizontal crossbeams were nine feet across allowing for multiple people to be strung across.  Not only was this design meant to be efficient in executing multiple people (rarely was there only one person executed at Tyburn) but it was also created with public viewing kept in mind.

Public executions were always a popular event to attend and Tyburn hangings always drew in a big crowd.  William Hogarth immortalized the Tyburn crowds in his Industry and Idleness series.  Monday was the big execution day, and for a fee you could get a seat in the stands specially built just to attend the hangings.  Other spectators had to push and shove in the crowd to get a glimpse while pickpockets and prostitutes made use of the spectacle to get some money in their pockets.

Although the posts were extremely high, the condemned wouldn't fall far.  The long fall, resulting in a broken neck from hanging wasn't utilized in public hangings until the mid 19th century.  Criminals were drawn up to the gallows in a cart with a noose around their neck.  The horse would be then be whipped so that the cart would be drawn away from the condemned and they would be left to swing and suffocate to their death.  A tip to the carter would hopefully get the horses going slightly faster...not that it mattered much.  Family members or hired persons would then grab on to the hanging bodies to add their weight in order to make the death swifter, otherwise a long agonizing death was imminent.

After the execution was performed the hangman would get your clothing, so choose your last outfit wisely (a nice waistcoat could mean a quicker execution).  The bodies would then be given to the family to be buried or the hospital to be dissected. 

The legendary triple tree was taken down in 1759 because it obstructed the roads.  The large gallows was replaced by a movable one yet the spectacle of the hangings was still causing traffic problems in a city already burdened by traffic jams so public hangings at Tyburn officially ended in 1783 and were moved to Newgate Prison (where the condemned came from anyway). 

While a nice marble triumphal arch is not as much of an eyesore as the Tyburn Tree, London still gives a nod to the legendary place where so many died and so many more were entertained by the criminals' demise.  In the sidewalk, in front of gorgeous white-stone homes, a memorial stone lies on the site beside three bronze squares marking where each of the iconic eighteen foot posts once stood.

The Sylph, Letters 1-8

Salon 1, Welcome, get cozy, and let's get chatting!

Summary
Our novel opens with Sir William Stanley’s letter to his friend, Lord Biddluph telling him that on his trip to Wales he acquired a wife. Sir William knows that this news will shock most, but as he puts it, “Don’t every body marry?” His new wife is Julia Grenville, a country-girl, who although is “rustic” in Sir William’s opinion is beautiful enough to tempt him into the shackles of matrimony. Beside being young and naïve we find that Julia is also “Mild, passive, duteous, and innocent” which excites Sir William. Sir William is quite the opposite.

We are also introduced to two other players: Sir William’s pen pal, Lord Biddluph and a man from Julia’s past, Henry Woodley. Lord Biddluph reveals the competitive nature that exists between him and Sir William and confirms that they both lead a rake’s life. Woodley writes to his friend to bemoan the loss of Julia, whom he has been in love with since they were children. Freshly returned, from making his fortune, he went to her father’s house to propose only to find he was too late.

Julia’s letters to her sister talk of the difficult adjustments to life in the ton. The bustle of London frightens her and she is perplexed by the grand fashions. She is constantly being scrutinized by her husband and those around her for the social faux-pas that she commits due to the how foreign her new lifestyle is. To aid in the adjustment Sir William has recruited Lady Anne and Lady Besford to be Julia’s companions, which as Lord Biddluph hinted at, could not be the best match for the naïve newlywed.

Discuss
Sir William’s introductory letters may not be the most interesting way to begin the novel but serve to give us an idea of how different he is from his new wife; they are foil characters. I found Letter 3 very interesting in that it gives a wonderful description of Piccadilly Circus and the change of lifestyle as Julia transitions into the life of an aristocrat. Letter 8 continues to give these great eye-witness accounts of high society.
The Georgiana Connection
Julia brings up Puce, the color that Marie Antoinette popularized and which Georgiana and her mother talk of in their personal letters to each other around the same time (some excerpts here). This is the same chapter where Georgiana sneaks in a reference to herself, “He had run the risk of disobliging the Duchess of D--, by giving me the preference of the finest bundles of radishes that had yet come over; but this it was to degrade himself by dressing commoners.” She couldn’t resist sneaking a clue into her anonymously-published novel, oh which there are several hunts throughout the book. In the same stroke, she pokes fun at herself for her own outlandish fashions.
Throughout the book Julia frequently refers to a “vortex of dissipation.” In her letters dating from the same time, Georgiana often uses this phrase to describe her own life. Those lucky enough to read both would undoubtedly catch the frequency of this Georgiana turn-of-phrase, if you will.

Georgiana is also very black and white with her characters. Those from the aristocracy come off as pernicious while those from Wales (The Grenvilles, Woodley) are very innocent. Woodley himself seems like the ideal Enlightened man, embroidering his tear-stained letters with poems and such.

If you were suddenly thrown into London ton life like Julia do you think you’d cope better than she? Does one only need an open-mind to survive this lifestyle or does it take more of a cunning personality? Do her descriptions of her life scare you as much as they scare her or are they more intriguing than terror-inducing?

So what is a Piccadilly Anyway?

Piccadilly does not sound like the most English of words. So how did it come to be the centre of London? Truth be told, it really isn't an English word, but that is all part of the tale I am about to tell.

The history of this very busy street/circus all goes back to a tailor in the 17th century. Yes, we owe it to fashion. Robert Baker was a tailor living on Portugal Street, as it was then called, who specialized in making lace collars known as picadills or picadillies, which were all the rage. His mansion, which he bought with the massive wealth he acquired from selling these frills, was known as Pickadilly Hall. By 1743 the name stuck and Piccadilly came to be.

It also came to be the street where all the rich aristocrats came to build their rich London mansions. Its fashionable genesis also continued into a fashionable tradition, Piccadilly soon grew into a hub for shopping. If we went on the Underground and came up in 18th century we would see and hear much of the same traffic, only with carriages and less smog emissions. The sound of the numerous vehicles was deafening to country ears and frightening for any tourists (especially if trying to cross the street).

By 1811 the Prince of Wales put his interest into something other than mistresses and upsetting his parents. He commissioned John Nash, to come up with a new street that imposed some logic to the medieval street plans. Call it urban development! The result was Regent Street and in 1819 enough of it was built for it to be connected to Piccadilly. But how? The result was Piccadilly Circus. Now the traffic of Piccadilly had more tributaries to disperse, although it never did seem to decrease. That remains true to this day. Although little remains of the Georgian and Regency architecture, one thing from the 18th century does remain: the traffic.

The Gordon Riots

In the first week of June 1780, over 300 people were dead and a good portion of London was either burnt or in ruins. The madness stemmed from a bill that had passed 2 years before and left the residents of London, Bath, and the rest of Great Britain in fear. It was known as the Gordon Riots.

In 1778 the Catholic Relief Act was introduced by the Whig, George Savile, and passed. Although Whigs were traditionally professors of religious tolerance this bill was actually to get more people in the army to fight the American Revolution. The bill absolved Catholics from taking a religious oath which had, until then, prevented them from joining England's forces. The spoilt younger son of the Duke of Gordon, George Gordon was a strong Protestant who had strong feelings against giving Catholics equal rights. He organized the Protestant Association in 1779 in order to upturn the relief act and in June of the following year he marched his followers to Parliament to petition. The group quickly turned into a mob of (at least) 40,000 strong and things quickly got out of hand. Whether this was Gordon's intention or not, we have no idea.

The crazed mob marched onto the House of Commons and then, with their "No Popery" banners and then proceeded to Newgate Prison and the Clink which were both mostly destroyed. The Clink, which had housed religious prisoners since 1151, was never to reopen. The prisoners were released and joined the mob. For a week while the mob raged and grew worse, Catholics and Protestants alike were prisoners in their own homes while London burned. During the day there was some peace but every night the riots reignited and the injured and drunk could be found among the corpses and ashes. Aristocrats' houses were targeted and some barely escaped with their lives. Edmund Burke, George Savile, the Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Mansfield, Lord North (the Prime Minister) and even the Duke of Devonshire narrowly escaped their wrath. An explosion at a Catholic distillery in Holborn sent gin and rum into the streets. People who went down on their hands and knees to drink the free booze from the cobblestones soon crumpled and died in the streets from the deathly acidic concoction. Reports from the time relate the flames of the city to that of volcanic explosions which reached to the heavens.

The army was finally called in on June 7 and ordered to fire on any group of 4 or more who refused to relinquish. It is estimated that 285 were shot dead, hundreds more were wounded, and a couple dozen executed. Although Gordon was charged with high treason he was found not guilty. He later was imprisoned for badmouthing Marie Antoinette and was thrown in Newgate, the same prison his mob almost destroyed. Ironically, he converted to Judaism shortly afterward while London was still was rebuilding (years later) from the week-long riots.

This site has a great map of the damage done in the riots.