Panic Over the Pig-Faced Lady: How Belief in an Urban Legend in 19th Century London Went Out of Control
Manchester Square is a small garden landscape in the center of London. Constructed in the year 1776 within the affluent neighborhood of Marylebone in the West End. The streets around Manchester Square are home to examples of some of London’s most stately 18th century Georgian architecture, and to this very day, the community around Manchester Square is one of affluence and influence. Late in the year 1814, when the Georgian mansions lining Manchester Square were less than a half century old, and the streets of Marylebone were still covered by cobbles, something very bizarre took place in this upper class neighborhood. Strange stories of the existence of a wealthy woman with a pig’s face began to circulate in the press, and reports of this woman walking the streets around Manchester Square spread across London like wildfire causing a near panic among the residents of the city. Manchester Square The Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square was said to be the daughter o...