- A Description of London [John Bancks, 1738]
- Illustrations*
- List of Maps**
- Preface
- Introduction: London 1700–1708
- Part One: City
- I. James Gibbs’s London, 1708–54
- The Architect Most in Vogue: James Gibbs
- ‘A Kind of Monster’: Growing London, 1720–54
- Obstructions and Inconveniences: Changing London, 1700–54
- II. Robert Adam’s London, 1754–99
- ‘A Kind of Revolution’: Robert Adam
- ‘We Have Done Great Things’: Improving London, 1754–99
- The Mad Spirit of Building: London Growing, 1754–99
- ‘An Epitome of a Great Nation’: London, 1799
- I. James Gibbs’s London, 1708–54
- Part Two: People
- III. Samuel Johnson’s London—Britons
- ‘London is Their North-Star’: Provincial Londoners
- ‘Men Very Fit for Business’: North Britons
- ‘Within the Sound of Bow Bell’: Cockneys and Citizens
- ‘A Very Neat First Floor’: Living and Dying
- ‘Take or Give the Wall’: Getting on Together
- IV. Ignatius Sancho’s London—Citizens of the World
- ‘Our Unfortunate Colour’: Black Londoners
- ‘Foreign Varlets’: Europeans and Some Others
- ‘Offscourings of Humanity’: Jewish Londoners
- ‘Get Up, You Irish Papist Bitch’: Irish Londoners
- III. Samuel Johnson’s London—Britons
- Part Three: Work
- V. William Beckford’s London—Commerce
- ‘That Which Makes London to be London’: Trade
- ‘Most Infamous Sett of Gamblers’: Money Matters
- ‘They Swim into the Shops by Shoals’: Retail
- ‘Clean Your Honour’s Shoes’: Streets
- VI. Francis Place’s London—Industry and Labour
- ‘Minute Movement and Miraculous Weight’: Made in London
- Fellowship Porters, Lumpers and Snuffle-Hunters: Moving Things Around
- High Life Below Stairs: Domestic Service
- ‘At the Eve of a Civil War’: Masters and Men
- VII. Eliza Haywood’s London—Print, Pictures and the Professions
- ‘Purse-Proud Title-Page Mongers’: The Business of Words
- ‘Overburdened with Practitioners’: Print and the Professions
- ‘Painting from Beggars’: The Business of Pictures
- V. William Beckford’s London—Commerce
- Part Four: Culture
- VIII. Teresa Cornelys’s London—Public Pleasures
- ‘High Lords, Deep Statesmen, Dutchesses and Whores’: Carlisle House
- ‘Down on Your Knees’: The Stage
- ‘Sights and Monsters’: The Lions of London
- No Equal in Europe: Pleasure Gardens
- ‘Too Busy with Madam Geneva’: Drinking and Socialising
- ‘This Extravagant Itch of Gaming’
- IX. Martha Stracey’s London—Prostitution
- ‘How Do You Do Brother Waterman?’: Prostitutes
- ‘The Whoring Rage Came Upon Me’: Men and Prostitution
- ‘Damn Your Twenty Pound Note’: Fashion and Vice
- X. Mary Young’s London—Crime and Violence
- The Republic of Thieves: Plebeian Crime
- Virtue Overborn by Temptation: Genteel Crime
- ‘Save Me Woody’: Violence
- VIII. Teresa Cornelys’s London—Public Pleasures
- Part Five: Power
- XI. The Fieldings’ London—Police, Prison and Punishment
- Mr Fielding’s Men: Thief-Takers
- ‘Pluck Off Your Hat Before the Constable’: The Parish Police
- ‘Hell in Epitome’: Prison
- ‘Low Lived, Blackguard Merry-Making’: Public Punishments
- XII. Jonas Hanway’s London—Religion and Charity
- Fear of God and Proper Subjection: Charity
- Nurseries of Religion, Virtue and Industry: Governing the Poor
- ‘To Resest ye World ye Flesh and ye Devell’: Religion
- ‘No Hanoverian, No Presbyterian’: Religion and Politics, 1700–59
- XIII. John Wilkes’s London—Politics and Government
- ‘Wilkes and Liberty!’ 1760–68
- ‘Life-Blood of the State’: City versus Court, 1768–79
- Not a Prison Standing: The Gordon Riots, 1780
- ‘I Would Have No King’: Revolution and Democracy, 1780–99
- XI. The Fieldings’ London—Police, Prison and Punishment
- Afterword
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- * Illustrations:
- James Gibbs, c. 1747, after William Hogarth
- Robert Adam, c. 1765, after a portrait in the RIBA
- Samuel Johnson, c. 1780, after Sir Joshua Reynolds
- Ignatius Sancho, c. 1770, after Thomas Gainsborough
- William Beckford, engraving of the Guildhall monument, 1772
- Francis Place, 1836, after a sketch by Daniel Maclise
- Eliza Haywood, c. 1728, engraved by George Vertue after James Parmentier
- Teresa Cornelys, c. 1765, artist unknown
- The Young Wanton, c. 1770, published by Carrington Bowles
- Brothel Thieves, 1735, William Hogarth, The Rake’s Progress, Pl. III
- Henry Fielding, c. 1749, after William Hogarth, and Sir John Fielding, c. 1762, after Nathaniel Hone
- Jonas Hanway, c. 1780, after James Bretherton
- John Wilkes Esq., 1763, William Hogarth
- ** Maps:
- London in 1723
- London in 1790
- Strand, Fleet Street, 1761
- Westminster, 1761
- City and the Upper Port, 1761
- St Clement Danes to Charing Cross, c. 1799
- Fleet Street to St Paul’s Churchyard, c. 1740
- Soho, 1761
- Covent Garden and Drury Lane, c. 1795
- Chick Lane, c. 1740
- Covent Garden, c. 1740
- Bloomsbury, 1761
- Westminster to St George’s Fields, 1790
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