The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London (76 page)

‘come to be hung’:
Oliver Twist
, pp. 15, 52.

‘crown a head’: rates of executions, Philip Horne,
Oliver Twist
, pp. xv–xvi; analysis of reduction in numbers hanged: Collins,
Dickens and Crime
, p. 4; rarity increasing audiences: Thomas W. Laqueur, ‘Crowds, Carnival and the State in English Executions, 1604–1868’, in A. L. Beier, David Cannadine and James M. Rosenheim (eds),
The First Modern Society: Essays in English History in Honour of Lawrence Stone
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 308; Punch and Judy: cited in Gatrell,
The Hanging Tree
, p. 121; William Thackeray, ‘Going to See a Man Hanged’,
Fraser’s Magazine
, 22: 128 (August 1840), pp. 150–58; Henry Angelo,
Reminiscences of Henry Angelo ...
(London, Kegan, Paul & Co., 1904), vol. 2, p. 139.

‘Oh Susannah’: Dickens, letter to the editor,
Daily News
, 28 February 1846, p. 6.

‘working-class onlookers’: Thackeray, ‘Going to See a Man Hanged’;
Flowery Land
pirates: Shaw,
London in the Sixties
, p. 130.

‘promote to visitors’:
Leigh’s New Picture
(1819 edn), p. 252, (1839 edn), p. 209.

‘descended on the scene’: The details of the Clerkenwell bombing, and the execution of Michael Barrett in this paragraph and the next two: Patrick Quinlivan and Paul Rose,
The Fenians in England, 1865–1872: A Sense of Insecurity
(London, John Calder, 1982), K. R. M. Short,
The Dynamite War: Irish-American Bombers in Victorian Britain
(Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1979),
Daily News
, 14, 16 and 25 December 1867, 27 May 1868;
Morning Post
, 16 December 1867; special constables:
Daily News
, 25 December 1867;
Era
, 29 December 1867.

‘ancestral landmarks’: ‘On an Amateur Beat’,
Dickens’ Journalism
, vol. 4, p. 382.

15.
THE RED-LIT STREETS TO DEATH

‘their unknowability’:
Martin Chuzzlewit
, p. 517; ‘How utterly lost’: Horwitz,
Brushwood Picked
, pp. 21–2;
A Tale of Two Cities
, p. 44.

‘prostitution at all’: the modern historian in the footnote is Judith R. Walkowitz,
Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class and the State
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 14; Mayhew,
London Labour
, vol. 4, p. 255. Although the author here is Hemyng, see p. 397, I will continue to refer to ‘Mayhew’ in these notes, for bibliographical clarity.

‘the rising population’: from 50,000 to 80,000: Michael Mason,
The Making of Victorian Sexuality
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 76–8, although the suggestion as to how the 80,000 figure was achieved is my own.

‘females in Britain’: this and the next three paragraphs: William Acton,
Prostitution, Considered in its Moral, Social, & Sanitary Aspects
(London, John Churchill, 1857), p. 18; Michael Ryan,
Prostitution in London, with a comparative View of that of Paris and New York ...
(London, H. Bailliere, 1839), pp. 176–7.

‘precise figure’: ‘robbery and violence’: Acton,
Prostitution
, p. 95; Mayhew,
London Labour
, vol. 4, p. 224; Metropolitan police commissioner: Philpotts,
Companion to Little Dorrit
, p. 200; 1841 figures: Acton, p. 17.

‘in their characters’: Lynda Nead,
Myths of Sexuality: Representations of Women in Victorian Britain
(Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1988), pp. 103–4.

‘Mayhew’s fourth volume’: I am grateful to Eileen Curran, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Priti Joshi and Scott Rogers for their help in piecing together the few scraps of evidence that remain relating to these men, and to Penny Hatfield, Eton College Archivist, for confirming Bracebridge Hemyng’s time at Eton (which he attended as the less exotically named Samuel Bracebridge Heming).

‘all that we have’: Hanger: Stuart Reid, ‘Hanger, George, fourth Baron Coleraine’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/12195, accessed 18 May 2011]; caricatures of Hanger pimping for the Prince of Wales: Elizabeth Cooke,
The Damnation of John Donellan: A Mysterious Case of Death
(London, Profile, 2011), p. 64; the citation in Mayhew,
London Labour
, is at vol. 4, p. 215.

‘cannot be mistaken’: Acton,
Prostitution
, p. 18; ‘The Pawnbroker’s Shop’,
Sketches by Boz
, pp. 228–9.

‘of years later’: Walkowitz,
Prostitution
, pp. 15–19.

‘girls under sixteen’: Ryan
, Prostitution in London
, pp. 119, 125–9, 139–41; footnote on the felony/misdemeanour distinction: Sindall,
Street Violence,
p. 21; venereal hospital figures: Walkowitz
, Prostitution
, p. 17.

‘she comes home’: sixteen-year-old
: Mayhew, London Labour,
vol. 1, p. 413
.

‘whores in that way’: Hudson,
Munby
, pp. 40–41.

‘over their shoulders’: bonnets and shawls: Walkowitz,
Prostitution
, p. 26; Boulton and Park: Morris B. Kaplan, ‘“Men in Petticoats”: Border Crossings in the Queer Case of Mr. Boulton and Mr. Park’, in Pamela Gilbert (ed.),
Imagined London
(Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 2002), pp. 53–4.

‘full of women’: ‘Walter’,
My Secret Life
, vol. 2, p. 94;
Yokel’s Preceptor: or, More Sprees in London! Being a ... Show-up of All the Rigs and Doings of the Flash Cribs in This Great Metropolis ...
(London, H. Smith [?1855]), p. 3.

‘for a bus’: Paterfamilias’ letter:
The Times
, 7 January 1862; responses on subsequent days; ‘Rape of the Glances’,
Saturday Review
, 1 February 1862, pp. 124–5; lithograph: [C. J. Culliford], ‘Scene in Regent Street’,
c.
1865, in Nead,
Victorian Babylon
, p. 63.

‘girls these were’:
Great Expectations
, p. 273; the historian who makes the suggestion is Michael Slater, ‘The Bachelor’s Pocket Book for 1851’, in Don Richard Cox (ed.),
Sexuality and Victorian Literature
(Knoxville, TN, University of Tennessee Press, 1984), p. 139; pretty girls: ‘Home Sweet Home’,
All the Year Round
, 15, 7 April 1866, p. 303.

‘with season tickets’: Egan,
Life in London
, pp. 173, 211, 214; Hékékyan Bey, Journal, British Library, Add MSS 37,448; MacKenzie,
The American in England
, vol. 1, p. 211.

‘dirty book’: The three British Library volumes are:
The New Swell’s Night Guide to the Bowers of Venus ...
(London, J. Paul [?1840]),
The Swell’s Night Guide Through the Metropolis
, ‘by the Hon. F. L. G.’ (London, ‘printed for the author, for private circulation, by Roger Funnyman’, [?1841]), and
The Swell’s Night Guide Through the Metropolis, or, A Peep through the Great Metropolis...
, ‘by Thelord [sic] Chief Baron’ [which suggests Renton Nicholson] ([place and publisher cut away], [?1846]). The dates of the first two are the suggestions of the British Library catalogue; the last has ‘1846’ written on its flyleaf. Neither Copac nor WorldCat lists a copy of
The Bachelor’s Pocket Book for 1851
; my information and citations come from Slater, ‘The Bachelor’s Pocket Book for 1851’. In this essay Slater does not appear to be aware of the
Swell’s Guides
, so it is only from the material that he cites that I can see the overlap/copying of material. There may of course be much more, or none apart from the few citations;
Yokel’s Preceptor
, pp. 7–9.

‘from backstage’:
The New Swell’s Night Guide
, ‘Saloons of the Theatres’ [no page]; ‘Theatrical Examiner’,
Examiner
, 26 July 1840, in
Dickens’ Journalism
, vol. 2, p. 42; Eagle Tavern: in Tracy C. Davis,
Actresses as Working Women: Their Social Identity in Victorian Culture
(London, Routledge, 1991), p. 81; Alhambra: Kirwan,
Palace and Hovel
, pp. 138–9, 143.

‘commercial basis’: Dickens writing a cheque for £50: Tomalin,
Charles Dickens
, p. 293, although she has no doubt that the cheque is for Nelly, while it seems to me just as likely to have been for the manager, to subsidize her salary;
The New Swell’s Night Guide
.

‘closed at one’: Dickens to Lord Lyttelton, 16 August 1855,
Letters
, vol. 7, p. 691; Argyle Rooms: Henry H. Wellbeloved,
London Lions, for Country Cousins and Friends about Town ...
(London, William Charlton Wright, 1827), p. 31; ‘Anonyma’,
London by Night
(1862), pp. 34, 37, 40, 42; decor: Kirwan,
Palace and Hovel
, pp. 147–9.

‘sentimental ballads’: Holborn Casino:
London by Night
, pp. 56, 59; Ratcliffe Highway saloon: Archer,
The Pauper, the Thief
, p. 117.

‘on that path’: Caldwell’s: Hudson,
Munby
, p. 22; dancing master’s assemblies:
London by Night, the Bachelor’s...
, pp. 1–5, gives one such list; Caldwell’s reputation: Hayward,
Days of Dickens
, pp. 122–3.

‘steak and oysters’: 1830s’ finish: Tristan,
London Journal
, pp. 75–7; the Finish, James Street: Vizetelly,
Glances Back
, vol. 1, p. 170; Barnes’s: Kirwan,
Palace and Hovel
, p. 150.

‘Grosvenor Square’: streetwalking locations: in 1818,
The London Guide, and Stranger’s Safeguard...
, ‘by a Gentleman’ (London, Bumpus, 1818), p. 134; other locations: Mason,
The Making of Victorian Sexuality
, p. 89; footnote on the Haymarket: Trollope,
What I Remember
, p. 55;
Dombey and Son
, p. 514.

‘no longer exists’: Tristan,
London Journal
, pp. 74–5; footnote: Flora Tristan uses Ryan, p. 91, and Colquhoun’s statistics, p. 79; ‘Walter’,
My Secret Life
, vol. 1, p. 146; 1841 and 1861 censuses: White,
London in the Nineteenth Century
, pp. 295ff.

‘roads were lighter’: walking to the West End: Tristan,
London Journal
, p. 75; Haymarket hours: Davis,
Actresses as Working Women
, pp. 144–5; Regent Street hours: ‘Walter’,
My Secret Life
, vol. 1, p. 345; western suburbs: ibid., vol. 1, p. 143.

‘a minor clerk’: police returns: Walkowitz,
Prostitution
, p. 23; Mary: ‘Walter’, ibid., vol. 1, pp. 369, 372.

‘or their communities’: Whitechapel: Hollingshead,
Ragged London
, p. 49; sailors’ wives: Walkowitz, ibid., p. 29.

‘accommodation house’: ‘a few shillings’: ‘Walter’,
My Secret Life
, vol. 1, p. 173; economics: ibid., vol. 1, p. 145; footnote on streetwalkers’ income: the room and dress are costed by Walter, but the remaining figures are my own, based on the working-class budgets outlined in my
The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed
(London, HarperCollins, 2003), passim.

‘for my money’: light: ‘F. L. G.’,
The Swell’s Night Guide
, ‘Accommodation Houses’ [no page]; Walter’s first accommodation house:
My Secret Life
, vol. 1, p. 72; footnote: ibid., vol. 2, p. 124; Gracechurch Street: Slater, ‘The Bachelor’s Pocket Book’, p. 131; short visit: ‘Walter’, ibid., vol. 1, p. 75.

‘on p. 360’: Francis Place and reasons for improvement: Mason,
Making of Victorian Sexuality
, p. 28; cabman: ‘Walter’,
My Secret Life
, vol. 2, p. 56; Titchfield Street: ‘Walter’,
My Secret Life
, vol. 1, p. 263 and passim; Mother H: ‘The Lord Chief Baron’
, The Swell’s Night Guide
, p. 33.

‘sharing living expenses’: Walkowitz,
Prostitution
, p. 24.

‘generally known here’: ‘F. L. G.’,
The Swell’s Night Guide
, pp. 42–3, NB, these passages, and the names and addresses of several introducing houses, reappear verbatim in ‘The Bachelor’s Pocket Book’, cited by Michael Slater, p. 137.

‘at Marble Arch’: Slater, ‘The Bachelor’s Pocket Book’, p. 133.

‘frequently heard’: Nicholson,
Autobiography of a Fast Man
, p. 96.

‘per cent in theatres’: location and percentage of offences: H. G. Cocks,
Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the Nineteenth Century
(London, I. B. Tauris, 2003), p. 29. For this section I am indebted to Dr Alison Hannegan for providing me with many helpful references, and to Peter Parker for guiding me to Dr Hannegan in the first instance.

‘the owners arrested’: Rictor Norton is the acknowledged expert in this area. David Robertson: Rictor Norton, ‘The Vere Street Coterie’, The Gay Subculture in Georgian England. Updated 7 August 2009 , accessed 21 May 2011; the White Hart: Norton,
Mother Clap’s Molly House
, pp. 187–90, [Anon.],
Religion and Morality Vindicated ... or, an Account of the Life and Character of John Church, the Obelisk Preacher, who was formerly a frequenter of Vere-street
(second edn, London R. Bell, [?1813]), and Holloway,
The Phoenix of Sodom
, passim.

‘and sex-workers’: Cocks,
Nameless Offences
, p. 68; soldier in court: Holloway,
The Phoenix of Sodom
, p. 29;
The Times
, 16 August 1825, p. 3; Vagrancy Act: Cocks,
Nameless Offences
, p. 56.

‘such roaring boys’: Edward Leeves,
Leaves from a Victorian Diary
, intro. by John Sparrow (London, Secker & Warburg, 1985), passim.