18th-century London

none April 2022 18th-century London 1700 1800 File:North Prospect of London taken from the Bowling Green at Islington (amended).jpg View of London from the north. St Paul's Cathedral can be seen in the distance. In the foreground are fields and a mill. Mid-18th-century view of London from Islington London Anne, Queen of Great Britain, George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III Stuart London 19th-century LondonThe 18th century was a period of rapid growth for London, reflecting an increasing national population, the early stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, and London's role at the centre of the evolving British Empire. It saw immigrants and visitors from all over the world, particularly Huguenot migrants from France. The built-up area of London increased dramatically in this period, particularly westward as areas such as Mayfair and Marylebone were constructed. Grand aristocratic mansions such as Spencer House were built, as well as churches such as St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Christ Church Spitalfields. Crime such as armed robbery and sex work were particularly prevalent, leading to the development of early police forces such as the Bow Street Runners and the Thames River Police. Capital and corporal punishment such as hanging, penal transportation and the pillory were used, but the period also saw the development of penitentiary prisons such as that at Coldbath Fields. Londoners saw widespread violence during upheavals such as the Gordon Riots. Many modern-day cultural institutions come from 18th century London, such as the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Academy, the British Museum, the Royal Thames Yacht Club, Lord's Cricket Ground, The Times, The Observer, Theatre Royal Haymarket, and the Royal Opera House. London-based artists and writers included Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth, Jonathan Swift, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Samuel Johnson. London's economy was massively boosted by its shipping industry, but other important industries included silkweaving. Many modern-day businesses trace their origins back to 18th-century London, including Sotheby's, WHSmith, and Schweppes. In order to transport goods and people, many new turnpikes and canals were constructed, and educational movements aimed at working-class children, such as Sunday schools, were pioneered in this period. Demography At the beginning of the period, about 500,000 people lived in London. By 1713, this number had risen to 630,000; by 1760, it was 740,000, and by the end of the century, it was just over 1 million.Emsley Clive Hitchcock Tim Shoemaker Robert A Population History of London https://www.dhi.ac.uk/oldbaileyonline/static/Population-history-of-london.jsp 2024-07-14 Old Bailey Proceedings Online The average height of a male Londoner was 5 ft 7+1/4 in cm 0 on and the average height of a female Londoner was 5 ft 1+3/4 in cm 0 on.Werner Alex London Bodies Museum of London 1998 090481890X London 108 Immigrant and diaspora communities African and Afro-Caribbean Londoners In 1768, the abolitionist Granville Sharp estimated that there were 20,000 Black people in domestic service in London.Gerzina Gretchen http://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813522593 Black London: Life Before Emancipation Rutgers University Press 1995 978-0-8135-2259-3 New Brunswick, N.J. 5 This included some who were enslaved, as evidenced by "for sale" or "runaway" notices in London newspapers.Gerzina 1995 6 In the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War in the 1780s, there was a small influx of Black Americans who had fought for the British and were therefore no longer welcome in the United States, many of whom become homeless.White 2017 135 Some Black Londoners became well known through their writings, such as Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano, Robert Wedderburn, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, and Phillis Wheatley. Other famous Black Londoners of the day include the violinist George Bridgetower, the fencing master Julius Soubise, and the aristocrats Dido Belle and William Ansah Sessarakoo.Gerzina 1995 6 Asian Londoners Around the docks in the East End was a population of sailors from India and east Asia known as "lascars" employed on ships belonging to the East India Company.White 2017 136–137 The company ran a boarding house for them called Orchard House in Blackwall.White 2017 136-137 In the wealthier West End of London, Indians were more likely to be employed as domestic servants by officers and former officers of the East India Company.White 2017 136–137 In 1765, the munshi Mirza Sheikh I'tesamuddin became the first-known educated Indian to visit London. He wrote a book in Persian on his experiences in Europe which was later translated into English by James Edward Alexander.Trivedi Harish 2003 The First Indian in Britain, Or, 'The Wonders of Vilayet' https://www.jstor.org/stable/23341080 Indian Literature 47 6 (218) 169–177 23341080 0019-5804 I'tesamuddin Mirza Sheikh https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008586562 Shigurf namah i velaët, or, Excellent intelligence concerning Europe: being the travels of Mirza Itesa Modeen, in Great Britain and France Alexander James Edward Parbury, Allen, and Co. 1827 London European Londoners London had populations of immigrants from various European countries. After the rights of French Protestants called Huguenots were repealed in 1688, thousands fled to London. At the beginning of the period, there were an estimated 25,000 Huguenots in London, particularly in Soho and Spitalfields.White 2017 138 At their height, there were 23 French churches in London.White 2017 136–137 Successful Huguenots included the sculptor Louis François Roubiliac and the optician John Dollond.White 2017 136–137 There was also a community of French Catholic immigrants, who ran French-language newspapers such as the Courier Politique et Littéraire and the Courier de Londres.White 2017 140 Well-known Londoners from other European countries include the painters Godfrey Kneller, and Johan Zoffany; and the sculptors Peter Scheemakers, Michael Rysbrack and Giuseppe Ceracchi.White 2017 141 In 1750, a population of the Bohemian Protestant sect called Moravians settled on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. They established a Moravian church and burial ground.Richardson 2000 201 An estimated 30,000 Irish immigrants lived in London by the end of the period.White 2017 157 Some were particularly successful, including Robert Barker, Hans Sloane, James Barry, Charles Macklin, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.White 2017 153–154 alt=A black and white engraving of a woman kneeling on the ground with a cloak over her shoulders. A dog is jumping up to lick her face, and she is smoking a pipe. Another dog and a cup sit in front of her.|thumb|An 1820s portrait of the traveller woman Margaret Finch from Norwood Theoretically, Romani people and travellers had been expelled from England since the 1560s, but there was nonetheless a community in London in the 18th century, particularly in Norwood. They were particularly associated with horse dealing and fortune-telling at London's fairs. Well-known travellers of the period included Jacob Rewbrey of Westminster, Margaret Finch of Norwood, and Diana Boswell from Dulwich.White 2017 144 Historian Jerry White estimates that there were about 750 Jewish people living in London at the beginning of the period. By the end of the century, that number had risen to about 15,000.White Jerry http://archive.org/details/isbn_9781847925121 London In The Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing The Bodley Head 2017 978-1-84792-512-1 London 145 In 1701, Bevis Marks synagogue opened to cater to Sephardic Jews descended from Spanish and Portuguese immigrants. It is still a working synagogue to this day.Richardson John http://archive.org/details/annalsoflondonye00rich The Annals of London: A Year-By-Year Record of a Thousand Years of History University of California Press 2000 978-0-520-22795-8 Berkeley 169 Ashkenazi Jews, descended from Dutch, German and central European immigrants, used the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place, the Hambro' Synagogue off Fenchurch Street, and the New Synagogue on Leadenhall Street.White 2017 147 Practising Jews could not join the city's trade guilds, and so many Jewish business owners lived outside the city, in places like Aldgate and Whitechapel. Michael Leoni was a famous Jewish singer,White 2017 146 and Daniel Mendoza a famous Jewish boxer.White 2017 152 There were smaller numbers of people who came from further afield, such as Mehemet von Königstreu and Ernst August Mustapha, Turkish valets to George I.Hedley Olwen http://archive.org/details/kensingtonpalace00hedl Kensington Palace: The State Apartments Pitkin Pictorials 1976 978-0-85372-172-7 London 6 Other visitors London also drew in people from all over the globe, even if they only visited for a short time. Examples include the Native American chief Tomochichi and his retinue, who met George II in 1734;Vaughan Alden T. http://archive.org/details/transatlanticenc0000vaug Transatlantic Encounters: American Indians in Britain, 1500–1776 Cambridge University Press 2006 978-0-521-86594-4 Cambridge 156 the Raiatean man Mai, who visited in 1774 and had his portrait painted by the artist Joshua Reynolds;Gapper John 23 February 2023 Joshua Reynolds' 'Portrait of Omai' is a national treasure. Why is Britain struggling to keep it? https://www.ft.com/content/bfa30b2c-b1bc-446a-89ad-03b558f37ba5 2024-07-15 Financial Times and the Aboriginal Australians Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne, who visited in 1793. 11 June 2021 Woollarawarre Bennelong https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/trailblazers/woollarawarre-bennelong/ 2024-07-15 The Australian Museum en Topography vertical 250 Nicolas de fer 1700 london.jpg A New and Correct Plan of the Cities and suburbs of London & Westminster & borough of Southwark with the Country adjacent, the New Buildings, Roads &c to the Year 1763 - from an Actual Survey Corrected & Engrav'd by... - btv1b53056487s.jpg A map of London made in 1700 (in black and white) compared to a map made in 1763 (in colour). London has spread much further west in the second map, as far as Park Lane (marked as Tyburn Lane). Extent London's growth in the 18th century was marked above all by the westward shift of the population away from the City of London. Westminster was intensively developed, with new districts like Mayfair housing Britain's wealthiest aristocratic families.https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/sites/bartlett/files/introduction.pdf Survey of London Vol. 51–52: South-East Marylebone 8–9 2019-06-30 Cavendish Square and Hanover Square were both laid out in the 1710s,Richardson 2000 178 while the Portman Estate, which occupies the western half of Marylebone, began its own building program in the 1750s with the granting of commercial leases, followed by the commencement of building on Portman Square in 1764.http://www.portmanestate.co.uk/timeline.aspx Timeline portmanestate.co.uk 2019-06-30 Manchester Square was begun in 1776.Richardson 2000 219 Comparison of London maps made in the mid-17th century with ones made in the mid-18th century also reveal that the new developments were much more likely to be built along grid structures.Richardson 2000 198 The most exclusive area, Mayfair, was intensively built up with luxury townhouses on an area occupied by seven different estates: the Grosvenor, Burlington, Berkeley, Curzon, Milfield, Conduit Mead, and Albemarle Ground estates. The Grosvenor estate, in the northwest corner between Oxford Street and Park Lane, was the most substantial private plot of land, featuring an orderly grid network of streets constructed around Grosvenor Square in the early 1720s.Weinreb Hibbert Keay Keay 2008 536 By 1738 "nearly the whole space between Piccadilly and Oxford Street was covered with buildings as far as Tyburn Lane [Park Lane], except in the south-western corner about Berkeley Square and Mayfair".London https://archive.org/details/london03kniggoog Charles Knight C. Knight & Co. 1843 263 Further west, the Cadogan Estate began working on the area between Knightsbridge and Sloane Square in 1777.Richardson 2000 220 To the south, the area now known as Elephant & Castle was also laid out in this period, with a road from Westminster Bridge connecting up to Borough High Street, and the New Kent Road also constructed.Richardson 2000 201 To the north, new developments sprang up around between Paddington and Islington such as Pentonville, named after its landlord, Henry Penton; and Somers Town, named after its landlord, Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers.Richardson 2000 216 Construction began on Bedford Square in 1775, which has been called "the most perfect of the London squares of the period",Richardson 2000 217 and Finsbury Square was begun in 1777.Richardson 2000 220 Building started on Camden Town in 1791, named after the 1st Earl Camden.Richardson 2000 225 Rural villages surrounding Westminster and the city also grew in population and were gradually incorporated into the metropolis: areas like Bethnal Green and Shadwell to the east, or Paddington and St. Pancras to the northwest.Ackroyd 2000 302 In 1750 the London topographer John Noorthouck reckoned that London proper consisted of 46 former villages, two cities (Westminster and the City of London proper), and one borough (Southwark). Westminster had a population of 162,077, the City 116,755, and Southwark 61,169.Besant, 1902; p. 75–76 New buildings alt=A large, grand white house, three storeys high and seven windows wide, with columns and statues.|thumb|Spencer House, built in the 1750s and 1760s for John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer New mansions built in this period include Burgh House in Hampstead (1703),Richardson 2000 170 Buckingham House (1705),Richardson 2000 172 Marlborough House (begun 1709),Richardson 2000 173 Marble Hill and Chiswick House (1729),Richardson 2000 188 Strawberry Hill (begun 1747),Richardson 2000 198 Spencer House (competed 1766),Richardson 2000 211 Albany (1770),Pevsner 1981 82 Home House (completed 1776),Richardson 2000 219 Apsley House (completed 1778),Richardson 2000 220 and Dover House (completed 1787).Pevsner 1981 82 Buckingham House, later known as Buckingham Palace, was bought by George III in 1762.Richardson 2000 208 In 1783, work began on expanding and renovating Carlton House for the then Prince of Wales, which took years to be completed as well as huge amounts of taxpayer money, only for the Prince to live there for a very short amount of time.Richardson 2000 222 In 1732, part of no. 10 Downing Street was acquired by the Crown and offered to the Prime Minister Robert Walpole. As he already had many houses and didn't want to pay to upkeep another, he accepted it as a perk of his position, beginning the tradition of passing the house down to each successive Prime Minister. It was substantially remodelled by the architect William Kent.Richardson 2000 192 The residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Mansion House, was completed in 1753 after having been designed by architect George Dance the Elder.Richardson 2000 202 The current Treasury building was completed in 1736.Richardson 2000 192 alt=A white church with columns and an elaborate steeple|thumb|The church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, designed by James Gibbs and built in the 1720s Bevis Marks Synagogue was one of the first new religious buildings of the period, opening in 1701. In 1710, the final stone was added to St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Christopher Wren.Richardson 2000 174 This cathedral replaced Old St. Paul's, which had been completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London. A flurry of church-building between 1711 and 1730 also saw the construction of Christ Church Spitalfields, St. Anne's Limehouse, St. George in the East, St. George's Bloomsbury, St. Mary Woolnoth, St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Paul's Deptford, St. Giles-in-the-Fields, St. George's Hanover Square,Richardson 2000 174 St. Anne's Kew, St. Botolph-without-Bishopsgate,Bradley Simon http://archive.org/details/london1cityoflon0000brad London 1: The City of London Pevsner Nikolaus Penguin 1997 978-0-14-071092-2 Cherry Bridget London 88 St. Mary's Rotherhithe,Richardson 2000 176 St. Peter's Vere Street,Richardson 2000 185 St. Martin-in-the-Fields,Richardson 2000 186 St. John's Smith Square,Richardson 2000 187 and Grosvenor Chapel.Richardson 2000 190 After this, further churches built in the period include St. George the Martyr, Southwark (1736), St. Mary's Ealing (1740),Richardson 2000 192 St. John-at-Hampstead (1747),Richardson 2000 198 Wesley's Chapel (1756),Richardson 2000 204 and the Portland Chapel (1766).Richardson 2000 211 Another burst of church-building occurred towards the end of the period, with new churches such as St. Mary's Paddington, St. James's Clerkenwell, and St. Patrick's Soho Square (1792),Richardson 2000 227 St. John-at-Hackney and St. Martin Outwich (1798).Richardson 2000 230 The period also saw the construction of several bridges across the Thames alongside London Bridge. With the completion of Westminster Bridge in 1750, London gained a much needed second crossing onto the south bank,Richardson 2000 199 and Blackfriars Bridge opened in 1769.Richardson 2000 213 To the west, Putney Bridge was built in 1729,Richardson 2000 188 Kew built its first bridge in 1759,Richardson 2000 206 and Richmond Bridge opened in 1777.Richardson 2000 218 The first Freemasons' Hall was built on Great Queen Street in 1776.Richardson 2000 218 Severndroog Castle was built in 1784 to commemorate the seagoing victories of Sir William James, who had died the previous year.Richardson 2000 222 Trinity House was built for the body that governs English and Welsh lighthouses in 1795.Richardson 2000 229 Shop fronts also began to be built with large windows for passers-by to see the goods inside, examples of which can still be seen at 88 Dean Street and James Lock & Co on St. James's Street.Pevsner Nikolaus http://archive.org/details/londoncitiesoflo0000niko London Vol. 1: The Cities Of London And Westminster Penguin Books Revised by Bridget Cherry 1981 0140710124 3rd Harmondsworth 80 English New government offices included Somerset House, the Admiralty, and Horse Guards.Pevsner 1981 81 Urban fabric To accommodate the rapid growth of population, Parliament enacted building legislation and initiated important infrastructure projects. The Fleet River, which was so filled with rubbish and sewage that it had been a health hazard for many years, was finally covered over in 1733.Richardson 2000 190 The New Road running between Paddington and Islington was constructed beginning in 1756. Intended as a drover's road upon which livestock could be driven to Smithfield Market without encountering the congested road network of the city further south, the 60 ft wide New Road was London's first bypass and served as the informal northern boundary for London for years to come.Ackroyd 2000 510–511 The City Road was added in 1761, connecting the Angel to Finsbury Square.Richardson 2000 207 To improve traffic, the houses on London Bridge were removed in 1757,Richardson 2000 204 the Holbein Gate in Whitehall was removed in 1759,Richardson 2000 206 and the gates of the city were removed 1760–1777.Richardson 2000 206–207, 218 ONL (1887) 1.079 - Izaak Walton's house.jpg Italian Opera House at the Haymarket (colour).jpg A London building from the 17th century (in black and white) compared to one built in the 18th century (in colour). Notice how the later building has no overhanging storeys or signs, and the window frames are recessed slightly. left 350 From 1707, buildings in London were no longer permitted with upper storeys overhanging the lower ones, so facades on future buildings were strictly vertical. After the Building Regulation Act 1709 (7 Ann. c. 17), wooden window frames were required to be recessed at least 4 inches into the wall to prevent the spread of fire up a building's facade.Richardson 2000 173 In 1762, shop signs that hung down were banned in the City and Westminster, and had to be fixed flat to the building instead to prevent them blocking out sunlight and falling on people walking underneath.Richardson 2000 208 The Building Act 1777 set building requirements for new housing and sought to eliminate rampant jerry-building and shoddy construction work. Housing was divided into four "rates" based on ground rents, with each of the rates accorded their own strict building codes. The Building Act accounts for the remarkable uniformity of Georgian terraced housing and squares in London built in subsequent decades, which critics like John Summerson criticized for their "inexpressible monotony".Steven Parissien https://archive.org/details/adamstyle0000pari Adam Style The Preservation Press 1992 64 978-0-89133-197-1 registration Landmark legislation included the Westminster Paving Act 1765 (5 Geo. 3. c. 50), which required streets be equipped with pavements, drainage, and lighting. The success of the legislation inspired the London Paving and Lighting Act 1766 (6 Geo. 3. c. 26), which extended the same provisions across the whole city and required that houses be numbered and streets and pavements be cleansed and swept regularly.http://www.regrom.com/2018/03/24/pre-regency-events-the-paving-and-lighting-act-of-1766/ Pre-Regency Events: The Paving and Lighting Act of 1766 24 March 2018 www.regrom.com 2019-06-27 Street lighting was more extensive than in any other city in Europe, something which amazed foreign visitors to the capital in the late 18th century.https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-rise-of-cities-in-the-18th-century Travels, chiefly on foot, through several parts of England, in 1782. Described in letters to a friend ... Translated from the German, by a lady Karl Philip Moritz www.bl.uk 1792 28 June 2019 22 May 2022 https://web.archive.org/web/20220522225623/https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-rise-of-cities-in-the-18th-century deadAckroyd 2000 303 The practice of numbering houses also dates from this period, with some sources claiming it started in New Burlington Street.Richardson 2000 210 The practice of putting street names on signs at each corner was taken up by the city from 1765 onwards.Richardson 2000 210 Crime and law enforcement Armed robbery was particularly common in London, either by highwaymen (on horseback) or footpads (on foot). One gang, run by a man called Obadiah Lemon, used fishing hooks to steal hats and wigs through open coach windows, or leapt on top and cut through the roof.McLynn 1991 5 George III himself was robbed of his shoe buckles and spare change while walking in Kensington Gardens.McLynn 1991 8 During the 1750s, several outyling towns in London's suburbs organised their own guard patrols to combat robbers on their roads. For example, Blackheath residents offered rewards for information on highwaymen in 1753, and Kentish Town inhabitants paid to hire guards in 1756.Richardson 2000 204 alt=A rowdy tavern scene. On the right sits a man with his waistcoat unbuttoned and his stockings round his ankles. A woman caresses him while another steals his watch. Other women are disrobing, drinking, and spitting at each other.|thumb|A Rake's Progress, plate 3, by William Hogarth, 1735, depicting a brothel full of sex workers Pickpocketing was also particularly common in London, where large crowds often gathered at executions and theatre performances.McLynn 1991 6 There was also large amounts of theft on the river, as ships laden with valuable goods waited with skeleton crews for a berth in the Pool of London. £70,000 worth of sugar alone was stolen per year from boats on the river.McLynn 1991 9 Sex work was another common crime, particularly associated with Covent Garden. In 1758, it was estimated that 3,000 sex workers lived in London.Rubenhold 2020 149 On one routine sweep, constables arrested 22 sex workers in Covent Garden, two of whom were men dressed as women.McLynn 1991 99 In 1757, a catalogue of London's sex workers was published called Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, which detailed the names, locations, and descriptions of hundreds of workers in the capital.Rubenhold Hallie http://archive.org/details/coventgardenladi0000rube The Covent Garden Ladies Black Swan 2020 978-1-78416-595-6 London 145 Although the crime of buggery was punishable by death, London had several establishments known as "molly houses", where queer men could meet. According to one homophobic pamphlet of the time, men in molly houses took on female personas and performed mock weddings and birth ceremonies.Ackroyd 2018 112 The 18th century saw a huge backlash against molly houses, with the publication of pamphlets such as The Sodomites' Shame and Doom,Ackroyd Peter http://archive.org/details/queercitygaylond0000ackr Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day Abrams Press 2018 978-1-4197-3099-3 New York 109 and groups such as the Society for the Reformation of Manners attempting to track down queer men and have them prosecuted.Ackroyd 2018 111 One of the most famous molly houses was Mother Clap's in Holborn, which was raided in 1726, resulting in 40 arrests and three hangings. Mother Clap herself was sentenced to the pillory and two years in prison.Ackroyd 2018 119 Law enforcement There was no organised police force in this period. In times of serious emergency, or in the case of organised gangs, the authorities could deploy the military, but this was deeply unpopular, both with citizens and with the military themselves.McLynn 1991 18 There were small, specialised forces, such as the King's Messengers (who dealt with sedition, particularly Jacobites), the Press Messengers (who dealt with seditious publishers) and the City Marshals (localised to the City of London).McLynn 1991 18 Local magistrates, or Justices of the Peace, could issue warrants for criminals; and their officers, constables, would apprehend them.McLynn 1991 19 Constables were also responsible for policing low-level criminals such as sex workers and fortune tellers, detecting crime, and raising the "hue and cry".McLynn 1991 19 Below them, beadles were responsible for making sure that those who qualified for "outdoor relief" were receiving it, acting as town crier, and supervising the town watch; and the watch patrolled the streets at night armed with a lantern and a cudgel to discourage crime.McLynn 1991 19 Corruption was endemic, meaning that if one wanted someone prosecuted, one had to do all the leg-work oneself, bribing officers at every stage.McLynn 1991 21 In previous eras, Londoners had been able to claim sanctuary at monasteries and former monasteries in order to avoid the law, but by 1712 this practice had been eradicated.McLynn Frank http://archive.org/details/crimepunishmenti0000mcly Crime and Punishment In Eighteenth-Century England Oxford University Press 1991 978-0-19-285233-5 Oxford 3 alt=A black and white engraving of a court scene. John Fielding sits at his raised desk, with a blindfold over his eyes. To the right of him, a man holds up two pistols and a clerk is writing at a desk. In the background sits a crowd and waiting witnesses. To the far right, two prisoners are standing with leg chains on.|thumb|A satirical cartoon of John Fielding examining evidence at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, 1779 Bow Street Magistrates' Court opened in 1740 in Covent Garden.Richardson 2000 194 One of the magistrates, Henry Fielding, established the Bow Street Runners in 1749 as an early form of a police force.McLynn 1991 32–35 They took the form of six parish constables who acted as bounty hunters, being paid a regular salary plus bonuses for any criminal they apprehended who was successfully prosecuted.McLynn 1991 32–35 The Bow Street Runners were unusual in that they are generally agreed to have not been corrupt.McLynn 1991 32–35 In 1754, John Fielding took over as chief magistrate, and his writings on the model popularised the concept across the country as he advocated for a national police force.McLynn 1991 32–35 Fielding is even credited with popularising the word "police".McLynn 1991 32–35 By the end of the century, there were eight or nine other such groups belonging to magistrates' courts around London.McLynn 1991 32–35 Inspired by the Bow Street Runners, in 1798 Patrick Colquhoun set up the River Police, sometimes called the first professional police force in the country, which tackled crime in the docks and Pool of London.Richardson 2000 230 Punishments alt=A pencil sketch of a man with short hair sitting in a stone room with chains on his wrists|thumb|A sketch of the famous thief and prison escapee, Jack Sheppard, possibly made by James Thornhill in 1724, shortly before Sheppard's execution Throughout the period, the number of crimes, especially property crimes, subject to the death penalty ballooned under a period of English law known as the Bloody Code.King Peter Ward Richard 10 August 2015 Rethinking the Bloody Code in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Capital Punishment at the Centre and on the Periphery https://academic.oup.com/past/article/228/1/159/1464229 Past & Present 228 159–205 10.1093/pastj/gtv026 29780182 5955207 Oxford Academic Of those executions, London played host to the vast majority.Cockburn J. S. 1994 Punishment and Brutalization in the English Enlightenment https://www.jstor.org/stable/30042825 Law and History Review 12 1 159 10.1017/S0738248000011287 30042825 0738-2480 subscription Hanging was a common punishment for several crimes. In the period 1750–1775, 3.85 people per 100,000 were hanged per year on average, and only 12% of these were for murder, as the number of people executed for property crimes grew under the Bloody Code. Hangings were public, and could attract large crowds depending on the fame of the victims. When the thief Jack Sheppard, who had escaped from prison multiple times, was finally hanged at Tyburn in 200,000 people reportedly came to see it.Richardson 2000 184 In the 1780s, the authorities stopped use of Tyburn as London's main execution site in favour of Newgate Prison. The last person executed at Tyburn was a man called John Austin in 1782.Richardson 2000 222 London employed a chief hangman and an assistant for this job, at a salary of £50 per year plus a guinea per execution. The most famous of these was John Price, who was himself hanged for murder in 1718.McLynn 1991 268 As an extra punishment for particularly cold-blooded crimes, a hanged body would be publicly displayed in chains, such as a Mrs Phipoe in 1797, whose body was displayed at the Old Bailey.McLynn 1991 272 Pirates were generally hanged at Execution Dock on the foreshore of the Thames near Brewhouse Lane and Wapping High Street, and the bodies would be left there until they had been covered by three tides of the river. This was done to Captain William Kidd in 1701.Richardson 2000 169 Burning at the stake was used as a punishment for women who committed treason, as in the case of Katherine Hayes, who was burned in 1726 at Tyburn for murdering her husband.Richardson 2000 186 As the period went on, this sentence changed to include being hanged before the body was burned at the stake. Men who committed treason were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, as was the case for several soldiers who supported the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, who were executed on Kennington Common.Richardson 2000 197 Nobles who committed treason were permitted to die by beheading. The last person to be executed by beheading in Britain was Lord Lovat on Tower Hill in 1747.Richardson 2000 198 Prisoners who refused to plead either guilty or not guilty would be "pressed" to death, otherwise known as peine forte et dure, by being slowly crushed by large stones, a practice abolished in 1772.Richardson 2000 216 alt=Daniel Defoe stands in a pillory on a high platform. Around him is a thick crowd of people, some of whom are waving their hats and trying to give him flowers. Soldiers around the platform attempt to hold them back.|thumb|An engraving of the writer Daniel Defoe being pilloried for seditious libel in 1703. He was so popular that instead of stoning him, the crowd threw flowers, which can be seen on the ground. After the Transportation Act 1717, transportation became another common punishment.Cockburn 1994 171 At the beginning of the period, convicts were transported to the American colonies, where their labour would be sold to a plantation for the duration of their sentence,McLynn 1991 286 but after the American Revolutionary War, the authorities looked for a new location. London's first shipment of convicts to Australia set off in 1787, and landed in Port Jackson, in modern-day Sydney. Some crimes were punished by whipping, which could take place either in public, tied to the back of a cart and being marched through the streets; or in the private confines of a prison.Cockburn 1994 172 Another punishment designed to inflict public humiliation was the pillory. As the century went on, those sentenced to the pillory would increasingly find themselves at the mercy of the mob, who could either protect them while they served their sentence or throw rotten vegetables, manure, dead animals, or rocks. Several people were killed by mobs while in the pillory.Cockburn 1994 172 Prisons At the beginning of the period, there were three kinds of prison in London: gaols such as that on Horsemonger Lane, where arrestees were kept prior to a trial; debtors' prisons such as Marshalsea; and houses of correction such as Bridewell Prison for the "reformation" of those who had no employment- often sex workers and the homeless. In 1779, a new kind of prison was introduced called the pentitentiary, with an emphasis on forcing criminals to do hard labour.McLynn 1991 294 In 1794, London gained a new prison at Coldbath Fields, where prisoners worked at occupations such as oakum-picking or walking on a treadmill, in silence, for ten hours a dayRichardson 2000 228 London's prisons were often filthy and its officers corrupt. In 1726, an investigation into conditions in the Fleet Prison revealed that families had to bribe the warden to hand over the bodies of their family members who had died inside; and that one man called Jacob Solas had been chained up next to a sewer and a rubbish heap for two months.Richardson 2000 186 In 1750, an outbreak of "jail fever" at the Old Bailey next to Newgate Prison killed at least 50 people.Richardson 2000 201 War and uprisings In 1715, claimant to the throne James Stuart landed in Scotland in what is known as the Jacobite Rebellion. In London, his supporters rioted, burning a portrait of William III, drinking toasts to James II, and attacking those who refused to join them. Soldiers were mobilised in Hyde Park in the event that Stuart should reach the capital.Richardson 2000 176 In 1745, Stuart made another attempt, leading to a military camp being set up at Finchley in case the Jacobite forces reached London from Scotland. In the end, they only made it as far as Derby.Richardson 2000 197 In 1763, the politician John Wilkes came under scrutiny after he wrote articles criticising George III. He was briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London, and his newspaper, the North Briton, was burned in a ritual execution outside the Royal Exchange. During the burning, Londoners rushed to rescue copies from the flames, and attacked the sheriff in his coach.Richardson 2000 208 Later that year, the MP Samuel Martin challenged Wilkes to a duel in Hyde Park, during which he shot Wilkes in the stomach.Richardson 2000 209 When Wilkes won an election in 1768, his supporters marched through the streets from Brentford to London, and when they got there, they broke all the windows in the newly built Mansion House. On 10 May, a soldiers fired upon a group of Wilkes' supporters at St. George's Fields, and several people were killed.Richardson 2000 212 The following year, Wilkes won a re-election, but the government nonetheless announced his opponent as the winner. When supporters of the government marched to St. James's, they were pelted with mud by Wilkes' supporters.Richardson 2000 213 Wilkes was so popular among Londoners that in 1774 there was a crush to be one of the people who got to pull his coach, and one man was killed.Richardson 2000 216 During the American Revolutionary War, the City of London generally favoured the colonists, arguing that their taxation was too heavy and that the government should not use violence against them. In 1775, the City sent a petition to the king with 1,171 signatures to this effect.Richardson 2000 218 In 1780, London was rocked by the Gordon Riots, an uprising led by Lord George Gordon against Roman Catholic emancipation. Severe damage was caused to Catholic churches and homes, and rioters also attacked legal buildings such as the Bow Street magistrates' court, Newgate Prison, the King's Bench Prison, the Fleet Prison, and The Clink. Houses of Protestants who were sympathetic to Catholics, such as those of George Savile, Lord Justice Cox, and the Earl of Mansfield, were also destroyed. One newspaper at the time estimated that over 450 people were killed in the riots themselves, and 35 were executed in the aftermath, although George Gordon himself escaped the gallows.Richardson 2000 221 Culture alt=A man stands on a stage with a skeleton, an anatomical model, and a man stripped to the waist. A crowd of seated men are watching.|thumb|An anatomy class given for members of the Royal Academy by Dr William Hunter, painted by Johan Zoffany The Royal Society of Arts was founded in 1754 in Crane Court. In 1774, they moved into their current address on John Adam Street.Richardson 2000 202 The Royal Academy was established in 1768 at Somerset House as an art school that ran a regular exhibition of artworks by its members. Its first president was the painter Joshua Reynolds, and its pupils included J. M. W. Turner and John Constable.Richardson 2000 213 Popular London portrait artists included Arthur Devis, John Wootton, Allan Ramsay, Johann Zoffany, Thomas Gainsborough, and Joshua Reynolds.Graham-Dixon Andrew http://archive.org/details/historyofbritish0000grah A History of British Art University of California Press 1999 978-0-520-22376-9 Berkeley 85–104 William Hogarth created satirical paintings such as A Rake's Progress that became famous as engraved prints.Graham-Dixon 1999 95–98 James Barry created early Romantic paintings.Graham-Dixon 1999 126–127 The British Museum opened in Montagu House in 1759, displaying the collection of Hans Sloane's books, coins, medals and natural history specimens; the Harleian collection of manuscripts assembled by the 1st and 2nd earls of Oxford; and the Cotton collection of manuscripts that included Magna Carta and the Lindisfarne Gospels.Richardson 2000 206 Only eight visitors saw it on its first day of operation.Richardson 2000 206 The Mozart family arrived in London in 1764, staying at Cecil Court, Ebury Street and Frith Street, and performing in several concerts. During this time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote several works including his first symphony, Symphony No. 1, at the age of eight.Richardson 2000 210 The pianoforte also appeared in London for the first time in this period, with a concert including the instrument being performed in 1767 at the Covent Garden Theatre, now known as the Royal Opera House.Richardson 2000 212 Many of St. James's gentlemen's clubs date from this period, including Almack's, Brooks's, and Boodle's. These clubs offered society and gambling to wealthy gentlemen, and many are still in operation today.Richardson 2000 210 Outside St. James's, other important gentlemen's clubs were founded such as the Kit-Cat Club, which met around the Strand and included famous Whigs of the day.Timbs John https://books.google.com/books?id=tBgHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA47 Clubs and Club Life in London John Camden Hotten 1872 47 en Sport alt=A poster showing four pairs of men in various boxing poses, above text detailing boxing rules|thumb|Jack Broughton's boxing rules, published in 1743 Bare-knuckle boxing, also known as prizefighting, was incredibly popular, despite being illegal. Famous boxers included James Figg, Jack Broughton, Tom Johnson, and Daniel Mendoza.Norridge Julian http://archive.org/details/canwehaveourball0000norr_k9n3 Can We Have Our Balls Back, Please?: How The British Invented Sport Penguin 2008 978-1-84614-115-7 London 1–16 Broughton introduced an early form of boxing gloves called "mufflers" and laid down a set of rules for his boxing arena on Tottenham Court Road in order to ensure the safety of participants. These rules have been called the "first written rules to be applied to any sport".Norridge 2008 12 In 1749, London held Britain's first-known open yacht race, from Greenwich to the mouth of the Thames.Norridge 2008 145 In 1775, the Cumberland Fleet became the first yacht club to organise races.Norridge 2008 146 In the 1750s, the Jockey Club was formed by aristocratic regulars at the Star and Garter Club in Pall Mall.Norridge 2008 50 The first attempt at codifying the rules of cricket was made by the London Cricket Club at the Artillery Ground in Finsbury in 1744.Norridge 2008 82 Lord's cricket ground was founded in this period, with the wine merchant Thomas Lord leasing out a parcel of land in Islington for his friends to play cricket on in 1787. The Marylebone Cricket Club grew out of players at this venue, with the club's earliest minute books also dating back to this year.Richardson 2000 224 Entertainment alt=A large crowd stand in a park. A three-storey bandstand contains an orchestra and a singer. |thumb|A concert at Vauxhall Gardens, depicted by Thomas Rowlandson in 1785 One of the most popular places to go for entertainment in London was Vauxhall Gardens, which reopened with new management in 1732 as the "New Spring Gardens".Richardson 2000 190 18th-century Londoners could also visit assembly rooms such as the Pantheon on Oxford Street, where people could enjoy Vauxhall Garden-style activities such as dances and masquerades in all weathers.Richardson 2000 215 Bull baiting and bear baiting were popular pastimes, with more exotic animals being brought in occasionally. For example, in 1747, a former boxer called John Broughton advertised a tiger baiting on Oxford Street.Richardson 2000 199 Areas around London also held annual fairs, such as Bartholomew Fair and Southwark Fair, which was abolished in 1762. One attraction of Southwark Fair was the acrobat Mr Cadman, who walked across a rope tied from building to building over the street.Richardson 2000 208 Occasionally, the winter was cold enough to make the Thames freeze completely, allowing for "frost fairs" on the ice, such as in 1789, when a bearbaiting took place on the ice, and an ox was roasted whole at Shadwell.Richardson 2000 225 alt=A long thin cityscape, with large white buildings on the far left, a bridge crossing the Thames with a view to St Paul's Cathedral in the middle, and chimney pots on the right|thumb|Robert Barker's 1792 panorama of London, drawn from the roof of a flour mill at the south end of Blackfriars Bridge Towards the end of the period, hot air balloon flights became a regular feature of London's entertainment offering, with the first balloon launch in England taking place in 1783 at the Artillery Ground near Finsbury Square.Richardson 2000 222 This first attempt was unmanned; the first manned balloon flight in the country was undertaken the following year from the same place by Vincenzo Lunardi.Richardson 2000 223 Another fashionable entertainment at the end of the period was the panorama, wherein 360-degree drawings of countryside views, cityscapes or battlefields would be exhibited in round rooms, giving the viewer the impression that they were standing on top of a high point in the landscape or on a tall building. The Irish artist Robert Barker began this trend, and in fact coined the term panorama, in the 1790s.Richardson 2000 222 Literature London played host to many important writers of the 18th century such as Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Henry Fielding, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith,Hynes Samuel Lynn https://archive.org/details/englishliteraryc0000hyne/mode/2up?view=theater English Literary Criticism: Restoration and 18th Century Appleton-Century-Crofts 1963 New York Fanny Burney, and Daniel Defoe.Latimer Bonnie https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780826495235/page/124/mode/2up?view=theater The Eighteenth-Century Literature Handbook Cook Daniel Continuum 2009 978-0-8264-9522-8 Day Gary London 48–57 Literary and Cultural Figures, Genres and Contexts Londoners such as Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft wrote early feminist works,Terry Richard https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780826495235/page/124/mode/2up?view=theater The Eighteenth-Century Literature Handbook Continuum 2009 978-0-8264-9522-8 Day Gary London 124–125 Key Critical Concepts and Topics and poets such as Stephen Duck wrote about the working-class.Terry 2009 126 Britain's first daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was sold 1702–1735 from Ludgate Hill.Richardson 2000 170 The Tatler, a society paper, first appeared 1709–1711.Richardson 2000 173 Gentleman's Magazine began publication in 1731 and continued until 1907.Richardson 2000 189 The first English Sunday newspaper, the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, began publication in 1780.Richardson 2000 221 The Times was founded in 1785 as the Daily Universal Register,Richardson 2000 223 and The Observer in 1791.Richardson 2000 226 In 1755, Samuel Johnson published one of the first dictionaries of the English language, which had taken him eight years to write from his house in Gough Square. Johnson's dictionary attempted to be more comprehensive than previous attempts, and included quotations showing where each word had come from.Richardson 2000 203 Theatre Georgian theatre What is now the Theatre Royal Haymarket opened in 1705 as the Queen's Theatre.Richardson 2000 171 The Royal Opera House first opened in 1732 as the Covent Garden Theatre.Richardson 2000 190 alt=A group of characters stands in a stone room. Two women kneel before two men pleadingly. A man in a red coat stands on watching them, wearing chains on his legs. The whole scene is surrounded by a theatrical curtain.|thumb|A scene from The Beggar's Opera by William Hogarth, c. 1728 1728 saw the opening of The Beggar's Opera at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Unlike the Italian-style operas that London audiences were used to, this used well-known folk songs and hymns from the time with the lyrics changed, so that audiences could sing along. It ran for 60 performances, considered a very long run at the time.Richardson 2000 187 One particularly famous star of the stage in the period was David Garrick, who had his debut in 1741 at Goodman's Fields Theatre.Richardson 2000 195 The famous actress Sarah Siddons first appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1775, playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice. This period also saw the rise of famous playwrights such as Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whose play The Rivals opened at Covent Garden in the same year.Richardson 2000 217 After the 1737 Licensing Act, all plays where the audience were charged for tickets had to be licensed by the Lord Chamberlain, a national censorship that lasted until 1968.Richardson 2000 193 Pantomime has its origins in 18th-century London theatre, with The Tavern Bilkers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1702 being a possible candidate for the world's first pantomime.Richardson 2000 170 Health and medicine alt=A woman sitting, looking to the left, wearing a golden dress and a floppy hat|thumb|Mary Wortley Montagu (Godfrey Kneller, 1715–1720), who pioneered smallpox inoculation in 1720s London In 1720, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu returned to London from travels in the Ottoman Empire, where she acquired knowledge of smallpox inoculation. In 1721, she had her three-year-daughter publicly inoculated by the surgeon Charles Maitland at the Royal College of Physicians.Grundy Isobel http://archive.org/details/ladymarywortleym0000grun_g5m0 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Clarendon 1999 978-0-19-167473-0 Oxford 210 This resulted in a short-lived wave of popularity for inoculation among the wealthy in London, including the Princess of Wales.Grundy 1999 211–220 Many new people were training to become surgeons, and needed corpses to practice on and learn from. From 1752, the bodies of six hanged criminals were given to the Royal College of Surgeons for this purpose each year, but this was nowhere near the number required. In 1767, Dr William Hunter opened a School of Anatomy in Great Windmill Street to showcase dissections for medical students. This need created demand for a class of criminal known as bodysnatchers, who stole recently deceased bodies from graveyards. In response, some churches built watchhouses and hired guards.Richardson 2000 212 Excessive drinking was a common hazard to Londoners' health, particularly during the Gin Craze in the first half of the century. In 1720, London's distilleries produced 2.5 million gallons of spirits per year.Dillon Patrick http://archive.org/details/ginmuchlamentedd0000patr Gin: The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva Justin, Charles & Co. 2004 978-1-932112-25-2 Boston 35 Newspapers such as the London Journal attributed several deaths to gin-drinking, such as that of a porter in Holborn who "drank so plentifully of Geneva, with his wife, that he died upon the spot [...] 'tis said that they drank three pints apiece, in a little more than an hour".Dillon 2004 43 A Whitechapel stationer and rag merchant, William Addis, is credited with inventing the toothbrush in 1780.Richardson 2000 221 Healthcare alt=A view into a courtyard surrounded by a grand red brick building on three sides. Elaborate black railings cordon off the square on the fourth side, and patients are dotted about using crutches and being carried on stretchers.|thumb|The courtyard of Guy's Hospital, by J. Pass, 1799 At the beginning of the period, London had two main hospitals: St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's.White 2017 476 Beginning in the 1720s, there was a movement to build new hospitals using charitable donations, which were called "voluntary" hospitals. Donors could nominate patients to receive free treatment.White 2017 477 In 1720, Westminster Hospital was opened in Petty France.White 2017 477 1725 saw the opening of Guy's Hospital, which was originally intended for up to 400 poor patients with incurable conditions, which other hospitals such as St. Thomas' would not treat at the time.Richardson 2000 185 St. George's Hospital was founded in 1733, and the London Hospital in 1740.White 2017 477 In 1739, Britain's first midwifery school was opened at St. James's workhouse infirmary.Richardson 2000 193 Middlesex Hospital opened in 1745 on Windmill Street with just 18 beds.Richardson 2000 197 The London Hospital moved to large new buildings on Whitechapel Road in the 1750s, where they still are to this day.Richardson 2000 206 From the 1750s, there was a wave of new maternity or "lying-in" hospitals, beginning with the British Lying-In Hospital in 1749, and further examples being built in 1750, 1752, and 1765.White 2017 478 London had a smallpox hospital at Coldbath Fields from the 1740s, which moved to St. Pancras in 1794.Richardson 2000 227 London's main lunatic asylum, the Bethlehem Royal Hospital (better known as Bedlam) long predates this period, but in 1770 it banned the longstanding practice of allowing tourists to pay to view its inmates. The hospital still operates in London to this day.Richardson 2000 214 England's first veterinary college was also founded in this period- the Royal Veterinary College, originally based in Camden in 1791.Richardson 2000 226 Another way people could get medical help in this period was through dispensaries. A dispensary was an organisation that provided medical help using money donated by wealthy people. These donors could then write letters of recommendation to allow poorer people to access treatment. The first free dispensary in London was founded in Red Lion Square in 1769.Richardson 2000 214 alt=A watercolour of a large, two-storey white building with a sign saying "Bagnigge Wells"|thumb|The spa at Bagnigge Wells, by Samuel Hieronymous Grimm King's Cross had several springs which were thought to have medicinal qualities. In 1759, the Bagnigge Wells opened, with a pump room where visitors could drink the water, play skittles, and hear concerts. Water could be bought for 3d per gallon.Richardson 2000 206 In 1770, a spa was also founded in Bermondsey, near what is now known as Spa Road.Richardson 2000 215 Business and industry alt=A door with white columns and a pediment. A painted figure sits on either side of the pediment, and the name "Twinings" is spelled out in gold over the door.|thumb|Entrance to the Twinings tea shop, which has operated on the Strand since the early 18th century Several long-standing London business trace their history back to this period, including the department store Fortnum & Mason (1707),Parker Bowles Tom https://books.google.com/books?id=3_PhCwAAQBAJ&q=fortnum The Cook Book: Fortnum & Mason HarperCollins UK 2016 978-0-00-819940-1 en tea shop Twinings (1717),Richardson 2000 172 the auction house Sotheby's (1744),Richardson 2000 197 the wine merchants Justerini & Brooks (1749),Richardson 2000 199 the opticians Dolland & Aitchison (1750),Richardson 2000 201 the auction house Christie's (1766),Richardson 2000 211 the publisher John Murray (1768),Richardson 2000 213 the newsagent's WHSmith (1792),Richardson 2000 226 the auction house Bonhams (1793),Richardson 2000 227 the soda manufacturer Schweppes (1794),Richardson 2000 228 and the bookshop Hatchards (1797).Richardson 2000 229 In September 1720, stock in the South Sea Company collapsed. Many wealthy Londoners lost large amounts of money (the Duke of Chandos lost £700,000),Dillon 2004 40 and in January 1721, one newspaper suggested that data on the number of suicides caused by the crash should be collected.Dillon 2004 40 The 18th century saw the rise and fall of London's silk trade, run in chief by Protestant Huguenot families fleeing persecution in Catholic France and setting up silk looms in Spitalfields. In the 1710s, calico fabric imported from India began to undercut London silk, and in 1719, 4,000 Spitalfields silkweavers rioted in an anti-calico demonstration, throwing ink and acid at women wearing calico fabric.Richardson 2000 179 Throughout the century, silk weavers continued to protest and riot against the intrusion of cheaper fabrics into their market, and against poor treatment by weaving masters. In 1763, a group of silkweavers broke into their master's house, broke his looms, cut up his bolts of silk, and burned the master in effigy.Richardson 2000 209 In the aftermath of one silkweavers' riot in 1769, two leaders were hanged at Newgate Prison.Richardson 2000 213 Silkweavers also celebrated victories, such as the law passed in 1766 banning French silk from being imported. Silkweavers processed through the streets playing "God Save The King", and lit bonfires and fireworks.Richardson 2000 211 A huge portion of London's economy was built through trade, particularly shipping. In 1790, 70% of Britain's imports and 56% of its exports came through the capital.White 2017 168 Ships coming to London were required to dock at the legal quays in the "Pool of London", a complex of many tiny quays and wharves along the side of the Thames from London Bridge to the Tower.White 2017 167 This was extremely congested, and so throughout the period, more docks were added elsewhere along the river, such as Greenland Dock in Rotherhithe and the East India Company's dock at Blackwall.White 2017 168 Some London companies and individuals profited through colonial exploits around the world, notably in the Caribbean and India. For example, twice-Lord Mayor William Beckford was from a family of Jamaican plantation owners, at the time of his death owned 3,000 people across 13 plantations, and was supposedly the first English commoner to be a millionnaire upon his death.White 2017 166–167 The East India Company was based at Leadenhall Street, and alone accounted for 19% of British imports by value in the last quarter of the century.White 2017 172 The London Stock Exchange was founded in 1773 in Threadneedle Street.Richardson 2000 216 Transport The 18th century in Britain is often referred to as being subject to "turnpike mania", wherein many roads were placed in the custody of private trusts, who set up tollbooths along the road to pay for its upkeep. London's first turnpikes were set up in 1711: along Edgware Road from Kilburn to Hertfordshire, and the road from Highgate to Barnet.Richardson 2000 175 By 1720, there were five more: between Shoreditch and Enfield; Tyburn and Uxbridge; Kensington and Staines and Colnbrook; Southwark to Greenwich and Lewisham; and Westminster to New Cross.Richardson 2000 179 Towards the end of the period, canals began to be constructed across London to allow for the movement of goods. The Limehouse Cut was opened in 1770 to allow boats from Hertfordshire to reach London's docks without having to go round the Isle of Dogs.Richardson 2000 215 As bridges across the Thames were few and congested, many Londoners crossed the river on taxi-boats operated by watermen. These watermen sometimes held rowing races, and in 1715, a comic actor called Thomas Doggett offered a cash prize and a new coat and badge to the winner of a race between newly qualified watermen. This race, called Doggett's Coat and Badge, is still held annually in London to this day.Cook Theodore Andrea http://archive.org/details/thomasdoggettdec00cook Thomas Doggett, Deceased: A Famous Comedian Nickalls Guy Oliver Archibald Constable 1908 76–77 Education The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded just before the beginning of this period in 1699, and ran charity schools throughout the century to provide education to London's poorest children. By the end of the century, there were 179 such schools in the city.White 2017 471 In 1758, the Orphan Working School was founded in Hoxton to teach children job skills such as shoemaking, as well as literacy and religion.Richardson 2000 205 In 1782, the Surrey Chapel opened on Blackfriars Road with 13 Sunday schools, which provided education for 3,000 children.Richardson 2000 222 18th-century London saw England's first school for deaf and mute children, founded in 1792 in Bermondsey.Richardson 2000 226 Several long-running adult education institutions were also founded in this period, such as the Linnean Society and the Royal Institution.Richardson 2000 230 See also Timeline of 18th century London References Sources Penguin Books New York London: The Biography Ackroyd Peter 2000 Hibbert Christopher Weinreb Ben John Keay Julia Keay Christopher Hibbert Ben Weinreb John Keay The London Encyclopaedia 2nd 2008 Pan Macmillan 978-1-405-04924-5 The London Encyclopaedia