Dead Drunk for Two Pennies: The Story of the London Gin Craze of 1720-1757
In 1734 London is a teeming city that’s nearly bursting at the seams with a population in excess of 600,000 souls and growing everyday. Most immigrate to the city looking for work with hardly a penny in their pockets. They arrive with high hopes seeking opportunity but usually find nothing but squalor and despair in England’s largest city. In the city’s East End you turn a corner and enter into a narrow sewage strewn back-alley. London’s East End is home to the city’s most densely packed and derelict slums. It is a den of poverty, prostitution and crime. In the alley you descend a staircase into a dark dank cellar and push open a creaking wooden door on rusty iron hinges. Above the door hangs a sign, common in this part of London, reading: DRINK FOR A PENNY; DEAD DRUNK FOR TWO PENNIES; CLEAN STRAW FOR NOTHING. This sign invites you to come inside; drink your fill and then pass out on the floor, only to awake from your stupor a few hours later and r...