Grub Street

Famous for its concentration of impoverished "hack writers", aspiring poets, and low-end publishers and booksellers, Grub Street existed on the margins of London's journalistic and literary scene.

"[12] John Stow also referred to Grubstreete in A Survey of London Volume II (1603) as "It was convenient for bowyers, since it lay near the Archery-butts in Finsbury Fields", and in 1651 the poet Thomas Randolph wrote "Her eyes are Cupid's Grub-Street: the blind archer, Makes his love-arrows there.

"[13] The little London directory of 1677 lists six merchants living in 'Grubſreet', and Costermongers also plied their trade—a Mr Horton, who died in September 1773, earned a fortune of £2,000 by hiring wheelbarrows out.

[14][15] Land was cheap and occupied mostly by the poor, and the area was renowned for the presence of Ague and the Black Death; in the 1660s the Great Plague of London killed nearly eight thousand of the parish's inhabitants.

One such cage was situated amidst the poor-quality housing stock of Grub Street;[17][18] destitution was viewed as a crime against society, and was punishable by whipping, and also by having a hole cut in the gristle of the right ear.

[citation needed] The Stationers' Company had considerable powers of search and seizure, backed by the state (which supplied the force and authority to guarantee copyright).

This monopoly continued until 1641 when, inflamed by the treatment of religious dissenters such as John Lilburne and William Prynne, the Long Parliament abolished the Star Chamber (a court which controlled the press) with the Habeas Corpus Act 1640.

Following the King's failed attempt to arrest several members of the Commons, Grub Street printer Bernard Alsop became personally involved in the publication of false pamphlets, including a fake letter from the Queen that resulted in John Bond being pilloried.

"[29] Publishing houses proliferated in Grub Street, and this, combined with the number of local garrets, meant that the area was an ideal home for hack writers.

[32] Such contemporary views of the writer, in his inexpensive Ivory Tower high above the noise of the city, were immortalised by William Hogarth in his 1736 illustration The Distrest Poet.

But if he writes like one inspired from Heaven, and writes for Money, the Man of Touch, in the right of Midas his great Ancestor, enters his caveat against him as a man of Taste; declares the two Provinces to be incompatible; that he who aims at Praise ought to be starved...[The author] is laugh'd at if poor; if to avoid that curse, he endeavours to turn his Wit to Profit, he is branded as a Mercenary.In response to the newly increased demand for reading matter in the Augustan period, Grub Street became a popular source of periodical literature.

[41] Toward the end of the 17th century, authors such as John Dunton worked on a range of periodicals, including Pegasus (1696), and The Night Walker: or, Evening Rambles in search after lewd Women (1696–1697).

[42] Other publications included the Whig Observator (1702–1712), and the Tory Rehearsal (1704–1709), both superseded by Daniel Defoe's Weekly Review (1704–1713), and Jonathan Swift's Examiner (1710–1714).

[43] Such changes helped maintain the level of disdain with which the establishment viewed journalists and their trade, an attitude often reinforced by the abuse publications would print about their rivals.

Titles such as Common Sense, Daily Post, and the Jacobite's Journal (1747–1748) were often guilty of this practice, and in May 1756 an anonymous author described journalists as "dastardly mongrel insects, scribbling incendiaries, starveling savages, human shaped tygers, senseless yelping curs..."[31] In describing his profession, Samuel Johnson, a Grub Street man himself,[46] said "A news-writer is a man without virtue who writes lies at home for his own profit.

"[47][48] The Province, or rather the States, of Grub-street, like those of Switzerland, never enter into any alliance offensive and defensive with any one contending power, against another; but wisely keep themselves in an exact neutrality.

At the same time, their private members are ready to engage on either side for good pay, without ever inquiring into the merits of the cause.In 1711 Queen Anne gave royal assent to the 1712 Stamp Act, which imposed new taxes on newspapers.

The Queen addressed the House of Commons: "Her majesty finds it necessary to observe, how great license is taken in publishing false and scandalous libels, such as are a reproach to any Government.

[50] The introduction of the Act caused protests from publishers and authors alike, including Daniel Defoe, and Jonathan Swift, who in support of the Whig press wrote: Do you know that Grub Street is dead and gone last week?

The Observator is fallen; the Medlays we jumbled together with the Flying Post, the Examiner is deadly sick; the Spectator keeps up and doubles its price; I know not how long it will hold.

[54] Such publications could be strident in their criticism of government ministers—Common Sense in 1737 compared Walpole to the infamous outlaw Dick Turpin: Must not a Foreigner laugh to hear the whole Nation exclaiming every Day in the publick News Papers [sic] against the Depredations of one pitiful Fellow, one of very mean Rank and Qualifications, every Way contemptible?

It is considered by some to have been a vehicle for Alexander Pope's attacks on his enemies in Grub Street, but although he contributed to early issues the full extent of his involvement is unknown.

Once his interest in the publication waned The Journal began to generalise, satirising medicine, theology, theatre, justice, and other social issues.

It often contained contradictory accounts of events reported by the previous week's newspapers, its writers inserting sarcastic remarks on the inaccuracies printed by their rivals.

Wilkes had filed for damages against the Under Secretary of State Robert Woods and won his case, and two years later Entick pursued the chief messenger Nicholas Carrington in similar fashion—and was awarded £2,000 in compensation.

[66] Pope hoped that the combination of the poisoning and the wit of his writing would change the public view of Curll from a victim, to a deserving villain.

[68] Such infighting was not unusual, but a particularly notable episode occurred from 1752–1753, when Henry Fielding started a "paper war" against hack writers on Grub Street.

His career as a dramatist was curtailed by the Theatrical Licensing Act (provoked by Fielding's anti-Walpole satire such as Tom Thumb and Covent Garden Tragedy) and he turned to law, supporting his income with normal Grub Street work.

John Church, an independent minister born in 1780, raised the ire of the local hacks when he admitted he had acted 'imprudently' following allegations he had sodomised young men in his congregation.

[citation needed] Writer George Augustus Henry Sala said that during his years as a Grub Street 'hack', "most of us were about the idlest young dogs that squandered away their time on the pavements of Paris or London.

People congregate at the entrance to a narrow street, overlooked by two four-storey buildings. Each floor of the right-most building projects further over the street than the floor below. At the corner of each building, shops advertise their wares. A cart is visible down the street, and one man appears to be carrying a large leg of meat.
19th-century Grub Street (latterly Milton Street), as pictured in Chambers Book of Days
A man sits on a large ornate chair, resting his left elbow on a desk, his clenched fist supporting his head. In his right hand, at his waist, he holds a walking cane. He wears a cloak and a long beard, and his slippered feet rest on a chequered or tiled floor. On the desk lies an open book. Above his head the wall contains a shelf, filled with books. A picture hangs from the wall showing a country scene with a large mansion or castle
Henry Welby, engraving after William Marshall .
A hand-drawn colourless map shows a narrow network of streets and alleys. Each is named. The Church of St Giles is visible, as are parts of Moorfields to the east.
Grub Street, as recorded in John Rocque 's 1746 map of London . At the time, its path was partly within Cripplegate Ward , but outside the city walls of the City of London . The surviving Milton Street is now entirely within the City of London.
A late 18th-century illustration of a property on Sweedon's Passage, Grub Street
In a small scruffy garret, with a fireplace at the back of the room, a man sits at a desk underneath a roof window, quill in his hand, writing on a sheet of paper. A woman sits in the centre of the room, repairing clothes. Some of these clothes are on the floor, and a cat is sleeping on the pile they form. Underneath the pile, partially concealed, is a copy of a journal. The woman is looking at another woman who has entered the room to the left, who holds a list of items. At her feet, a dog is stealing a piece of food from a plate on a chair.
A copy of The Grub Street Journal lies at the writer's feet, in William Hogarth 's The Distrest Poet . Set in a garret , the print has been described as a study of a typical Grub Street writer. [ 30 ]
In a windowed room, with a large fire blazing in the background, two long tables accommodate groups of men engaged in apparent discussion. Other men sit reading and smoking pipes, backs to the viewer. In the foreground, a small serving boy pours coffee from a container into a cup. In the distance, next to the fireplace, a woman serves from a hatch.
The Coffeehous Mob , frontispiece to Ned Ward 's Vulgus Britannicus (1710). The fruits of the Grub Street publishers were read and debated in houses like this. [ 31 ]
In a full-length portrait, an overweight middle-aged man stands, legs slightly apart, with his right hand resting on the top of a coat of arms, leant on the top of an ornate table. In his left hand he holds a large white document. He is dressed in expensive 18th-century clothing, with a blue sash over his left shoulder, and a long grey wig. Behind him, a large pale column of stone rises from a tiled floor. A balustrade connects to the column, and a small green plant is visible.
Robert Walpole used Treasury funds to subsidise elements of the press that were sympathetic to the Whig government. [ 43 ]
A full length portrait of a pale-skinned woman standing, left arm resting on an orb, itself on a cushion supported by a table. Next to the orb is a crown and sceptre. Thick red curtains frame the woman, who is dressed in yellow. Her right arm holds a violet ermine robe. Stone columns are visible behind her.
Queen Anne
Grub Street printer John Entick's successful legal battle against the executive power of the state was an influential factor in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution .
A front cover of The Gentleman's Magazine , which started in 1731. The first of its kind, it was started by Edward Cave from his office at St John's Gate. [ 64 ] [ 65 ]
The junction of Silk Street and Milton Street (left)