The Metropolis

Shadwell is full of vandals, drunks and whores

Mike Pollitt | Thursday 23 June, 2011 14:51

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That’s what Walter Scott reckoned in 1822.

“The brick buildings by which it was occupied, crowded closely on each other, […] riotous shouts, oaths, profane songs, and boisterous laughter, […] issued from the alehouses and taverns, which, as the signs indicated, were equal in number to all the other houses; and, that the full character of the place might be evident, several faded, tinselled and painted females, looked boldly at the strangers from their open lattices.”
[Via The Dabbler]

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