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Shopping in London during Jane Austen’s Time

Posted in jane austen, Regency World, Shopping, tagged , , on May 16, 2007| 1 Comment »

High Change in Bond Street, 1796, Gilray

In 1800 there were 150 shops in Oxford Street alone, and Jane always made time to treat herself in the city shops and to make purchases on behalf of friends and relatives in the country. She mentions buying muslin and trimmings at Grafton’s the drapers, as well as purchases of gloves, stockings, caps, bonnets, china from Wedgwood’s shop and tea from Twinings. In Gray’s the jewelers on Sackville Street Mr. John Dashwood, encountering his half-sister, excuses himself for not calling on her, as ‘one always has so much to do on first coming to town. I am come here to bespeak Fanny a seal.’ Also in the shop is a boorish dandy choosing a toothpick case adorned with ivory, gold and pearls. In Emma, Mr Elton takes Harriet’s picture to London to be framed in Bond Street, and Frank Churchill goes there to have his hair cut — though this is only an excuse contrived to conceal his true purpose, which is to purchase a piano for the woman he loves.

Jane Austen’s Town and Country Style, Susan Watkins, p 172

For further reading: Regency Shopping: Shopping Malls

Burlington Arcade, North Entrance, 1819

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London Fog

Posted in jane austen, Regency Life, Regency World, tagged , on February 18, 2007|

From “An American in Regency England,” Louis Simonds writes in March 5, 1810

“It is difficult to form an idea of the kind of winter days in London; the smoke of fossil coals forms an atmosphere, perceivable for many miles, like a great round cloud attached to the earth. In the town itself, where the weather is cloudy and foggy, which is frequently the case in winter, this smoke increases the general dingy hue, and terminates the length of every street with a fixed grey mist, receding as you advance.”

Mr. Simond’s also writes:

“The inhabitants of London, such as they are seen in the streets, have, as well as the outside of their houses a sort of dingy, smoky look; not dirty absolutely–for you generally perceive clean linen–but the outside garments are of a dull, dark cast, and harmonize with mud and smoke. Prepossessed with a high opinion of English corpulency.”

In fact, by the 1800’s more than a million London residents were burning coal, and winter fogs became a frequent and pervasive nuisance. How can we tie in these London fogs to Jane Austen’s works? Here’s an excerpt from an interesting online essay:

Escaping the Fog of Pride and Prejudice

The words of the title of Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, shroud the main characters, Elizabeth and Darcy in a fog. The plot of the novel focuses on how Elizabeth and Darcy escape the fog and find each other. Both characters must individually recognize their faults and purge them. At the beginning of the novel, it seems as if the two will never be able to escape the thick fog. The scene at the Netherfield ball makes the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy much more climactic because the pride and prejudice of both increases greatly during the night….

Elizabeth later declines a proposal from Darcy. He proposed, while his pride and love for Elizabeth were still conflicting. His proposal was like Collins’, he felt he was giving Elizabeth a great honor. He told her of his struggle to overcome his dislike of Elizabeth’s family. The proposal is so unromantic that Elizabeth returns a harsh rejection. This is when Darcy recognizes his pride and begins to purge it. As a truer character is revealed before Elizabeth, she her own prejudice towards him and quickly loses it. The marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy is such a great one because each had to conquer numerable obstacles to be able to accept the other. The Netherfield ball introduced many of the obstacles which made the marriage seem impossible.

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Fashionable London Addresses

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on February 8, 2007|

Grosvenor Street, near Park Lane (right)

Grosvenor Square (Left)

“One’s address was a symbol of status. Maria obtained ‘one of the best houses in Wimpole Street’; the Johan Dashwoods (Sense and Sensibility) were well situated in Harley Street; while the Bingleys (Pride and Prejudice) found equally upper-crust accommodations in Mr. Hurst’s house in Grosvenor Street. By contrast, the Gardiners, who were in trade, lived in Gracechurch Street, in the commercial district of London and within sight of Mr. Gardiner’s warehouse.” From: Jane Austen’s Town and Country Style by Susan Watkins.Wimpole Street

“The Georgian period in London coincided very neatly with the Palladian Revival in architecture and art. Lord Burlington, in his 1715 design of Burlington House in Piccadilly, played a major role in popularizing this classical style which became the norm for much of the century. A few years later, in 1725, Lord Burlington was at it again, with his remodeling of Chiswick House, then a country retreat but now part of the greater London sprawl.

At the same time Grosvenor Square was laid out in Mayfair, part of the Grosvenor family’s development of that aristocratic district. More London squares followed, notably at Berkeley Square (design by William Kent). Kent was also responsible for building the Treasury Building(1733), and the Horse Guards (1745).” From: (Britain Express)

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Early 19th Century London

Posted in jane austen, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency World, tagged , on January 20, 2007|

“The huge size of London meant that is was also the largest single market for basic consumer goods, which stimulated the production of shoes, clothing, furniture, bread, beer and the other necessities of life. London breweries were amongst the most capital intensive concerns in the land. The cattle driven to the market at Smithfield supplied hides for the tanners at Bermondsley who produced leather to be used in shoes, saddles, coaches, book bindings.” P. 35, London – World City, 1800-1840, Edited by Celina Fox, 1992, Yale University Press, New haven & London, in Association with The Museum of London. “By the turn of the nineteenth century London had almost ten thousand acres of market gardens serving the hungry metropolis. The gardens were richly fertilized with the dung from the streets and stables from London – each acre had sixty cartloads of manure spread over and dug into it each year. This contrasts with regular farming land about London which, during this period, was only manured once every three or four years. (During September to October.) As well as dung, the market gardeners made copious use of marl, dug up from Enfield chase to the north of the city. A by-product of marl production were thousands of fossilised dinosaur bones, to be sent down to the newly developed British Museum (although many, no doubt, were crushed for the market gardens as well). Manure and/or marl was ploughed in by a clumsy swing plough, and harrowed once ploughed over. Working the gardens began soon after Christmas. Once the weather was favourable, the market gardeners began by sowing the borders with radishes, spinach, onions as well many seed crops.” In An American in Regency England, 1810-1811, Louis Simond writes: “The streets have all common sewers, which drain the filth of every house. The drains preclude the awkward process by which necessaries are emptied at Paris, poisoning the air of whole streets during the night, with effluvia, hurtful and sometimes fatal to the inhabitants. Rich houses have what are called water-closets; a cistern in the upper story, filled with rain-water, communicates by a pipe and cock to a vessel of earthenware, which it constantly washes.” Other Links Related to City Living in the Early 19th Century:

Images: City of London

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London – Pall Mall Club Land

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on January 7, 2007|

“As Pall Mall and the immediate neighbourhood of St. James’s have been for a century the headquarters of those London clubs which have succeeded to the fashionable coffee-houses, and are frequented by the upper ranks of society, a few remarks on Club-land and Club-life will not be out of place here.As Walker observes in his “Original,” the system of clubs is one of the greatest and most important changes in the society of the present age from that of our grandfathers, when coffee-houses were in fashion. “The facilities of life have been wonderfully increased by them, whilst the expense has been greatly diminished. For a few pounds a year, advantages are to be enjoyed which no fortunes, except the most ample, can procure. … For six guineas a year, every member has the command of an excellent library, with maps; of the daily papers, London and foreign, the principal periodicals, and every material for writing, with attendance for whatever is wanted. The building is a sort of palace, and is kept with the same exactness and comfort as a private dwelling. Every member is a master without the troubles of a master. He can come when he pleases, and stay away as long as he pleases, without anything going wrong. He has the command of regular servants, without having to pay or to manage them. He can have whatever meal or refreshment he wants at all hours, and served up with the cleanliness and comfort of his own home. He orders just what he pleases, having no interest to think of but his own. In short, it is impossible to suppose a greater degree of liberty in living.”

From: ‘Pall Mall; Clubland’, Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 140-64. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45188. Date accessed: 07 January 2007.

This site leads you to views of London today. Explore the sights in panoramic views.

Also read on this site Male Bastions: The Clubs of St. James

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