London Revisited

In 1737, Samuel Johnson and his student David Garrick decided to walk to London from Lichfield in search of opportunity. It worked out well for both of them, but for many of the large number who made their hopeful journey to the capital from all over the country in the 18th century, life was more likely to end up like a scene from a Hogarth print, ruined by gin and despair.

London had become a ‘great and monstrous thing’ according to Daniel Defoe. However, if you were lucky enough to survive childhood, and gin, and have a bit of money, it was an increasingly pleasant monster, offering strolls through grand squares and pleasure gardens, and shops displaying a dizzying variety of goods from all over the world alongside cheap copies of a new literary form: the novel. To discuss London’s emergence as a brutal city of consumption and cultural innovation, Rosemary is joined again by Markman Ellis, a professor of 18th-century studies at Queen Mary University of London.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applesignuplr⁠⁠⁠

Other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/scsignuplr⁠⁠

Read more in the LRB:

Clare Bucknell on Samuel Richardson: https://lrb.me/lrep1001

John Mullan on Pamela: https://lrb.me/lrep1002

Rosemary Hill on Hogarth: https://lrb.me/lrep1003

Tom Paulin on Daniel Defoe: https://lrb.me/lrep1004

Claude Rawson on Henry Fieldings: https://lrb.me/lrep1005

What is Close Readings?

Close Readings is a multi-series podcast from the London Review of Books that covers different periods and themes of literature, history and philosophy. Each year there are several series running simultaneously, with a new episode appearing every week.

Subscribe to Close Readings for access to all past and current series (see links above).

The coffee served in London in the 1690s was notoriously unappetising, likened at the time to ‘burnt shoes and charcoal’. Nonetheless it was extremely popular, not least for the energy and locations it provided for two great booms in London life: financial speculation and a genuinely public print culture. For this episode, Rosemary is joined by Markman Ellis, professor of 18th-century studies at Queen Mary University of London, to look at the architecture, literature and culture of ‘politeness’ that emerged after the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the stories spun out of it by Daniel Defoe and John Gay. They discuss the coffee houses where London’s stock exchange and marine insurance market were created, the front rooms where women enjoyed the new ‘visiting system’ and the increasingly hazardous streets where Moll Flanders and others sought their fortune.

Reading by Fiona Sheehan

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applesignuplr⁠⁠

Other podcast apps: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/scsignuplr⁠

Read more in the LRB:

Steven Shapin on coffee: https://lrb.me/lrep901

Tom Paulin on Defoe: https://lrb.me/lrep902

Michael Ledger-Lomas on the South Sea Company: https://lrb.me/lrep903

What is Close Readings?

Close Readings is a multi-series podcast from the London Review of Books that covers different periods and themes of literature, history and philosophy. Each year there are several series running simultaneously, with a new episode appearing every week.

Subscribe to Close Readings for full access to all past and current series (see links above).

Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought a flurry of changes to London life. Women were allowed to appear on stage for the first time, the Royal Society was founded and the West End, with its squares, parks and fashionable ‘season’, was born. But the social whirl stopped abruptly in 1665 with the arrival of plague, which was followed in 1666 by the catastrophic Great Fire of London. To talk about these events and the new city that emerged from the ashes, Rosemary is again joined by Vanessa Harding, emerita professor of London history at Birkbeck. They look at the invaluable observations of Samuel Pepys, the continental ambitions of Christopher Wren and the emergence of political parties from the succession crisis of the 1680s.

Reading by Duncan Wilkins

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applesignuplr⁠⁠

Other podcast apps: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/scsignuplr⁠

Further reading in the LRB:

Margaret Anne Doody on Aphra Behn: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep801⁠

Deborah Friedell on Samuel Pepys: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep802⁠

Simon Schaffer on Christopher Wren: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep803⁠

James Shapiro on plague writing: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrep804⁠

When James VI of Scotland arrived in London in 1603 to become the first ‘King of Great Britain’, expectations were high. They were soon disappointed, not least for the Catholics who tried to blow him and half of Westminster up in 1605. But the plot failed, and with James’s reign came a new, lavish court life, the emergence of the first newspapers amid the booming print industry around St Paul’s, and, with the guidance of Inigo Jones, the arrival of the renaissance in London’s architecture with the development of Covent Garden and the first of the city’s squares.

To continue her story of London, Rosemary is joined again by Vanessa Harding to see why James’s Stuart settlement eventually failed under the personal rule of Charles I, leading to a civil war in which London became the financial and military headquarters for the victorious Parliamentarians and James’s grand new banqueting house at Whitehall was used as the backdrop for his son’s execution.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applesignuplr⁠⁠

Other podcast apps: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/scsignuplr⁠

Read more in the LRB:

Perry Anderson on the Civil War:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n21/perry-anderson/maurice-thomson-s-war⁠

Blair Worden on the Civil War:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n16/blair-worden/conrad-russell-s-civil-war⁠

Maggie Kilgour on Milton and London:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n20/maggie-kilgour/pens-and-heads⁠

John Gallagher on Early Modern news:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n03/john-gallagher/quickly-quickly-quickly⁠

When Thomas Platter, a Swiss tourist, went to see ‘Julius Caesar’ at the Globe Theatre in 1599, it wasn’t Shakespeare’s language that attracted his attention but the ready availability of refreshments and the high quality of the players’ clothes. The revolution in playmaking that he witnessed on the south bank of the Thames reflected widespread innovations in London’s cultural life in the reign of Elizabeth I. For the first time, we can see the city clearly, in the panoramas and maps inspired by Dutch artists. New ideas about history are emerging in the works of Stow and Holinshed. And the growth of trade through piracy, with a new centre of commerce in Thomas Gresham’s Royal Exchange, marks the beginning of England's imperial expansion.

In this episode, Rosemary is joined again by Vanessa Harding to discuss this extraordinary moment in London’s history and some of the reasons behind it, from Elizabeth’s genius for survival to the city’s lack of a university.

Reading by Duncan Wilkins

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://lrb.me/applesignuplr⁠

Other podcast apps: ⁠https://lrb.me/scsignuplr⁠

Read more in the LRB:

Charles Nicholl on Elizabethan true crime: https://lrb.me/lrep601

Michael Dobson on Shakespeare's life: https://lrb.me/lrep603

Colin Burrow on Walter Raleigh: https://lrb.me/lrep02