Book Review – ‘Drink Maps in Victorian Britain’
Over the years I’ve created a number of what you could call ‘drink maps’ and they have provided me with the basis for some great pub crawls. But the history of the original drink maps shows that they were designed to reduce rather than promote the consumption of alcohol.
In the newly-published book ‘Drink Maps in Victorian Britain’ (published by Bodleian Library Publishing on May 9) author Kris Butler seeks to tell the story of these unusual Victorian documents and come to some sort of conclusion about whether they ultimately proved to be thought-provoking or thirst-provoking.
It’s a well-designed publication on high quality paper that does full justice to the many maps and diagrams displayed across its 192 pages that help to tell the tale that begins with Temperance Movement seeking to use visual documents in the form of maps to highlight the high density of places selling alcohol in UK cities and towns.
They argued that the evil drink was affecting work productivity, family life and society in general and that the easy accessibility of alcohol did not help. Certainly the fact that a mere half square mile of London in 1877 had as many as 276 places to purchase alcohol fuelled their cause. The book details the period of the Beerhouse Act of 1830 that prompted more outlets to open selling beer to counter the consumption of gin and other spirits that had a shocking impact. The famous Hogarth engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane are represented in the book.
During this period it highlights the unusual ruling that allowed bona fide travellers to effectively order alcohol outside of the regular trading hours if they could prove they had travelled more than three miles. Needless to say this was incredibly tough to police.
A major chapter in the book covers the legal victory in a Blackburn town formerly called Over Darwen when a request for the renewal of an alcohol licence was turned down and involved in the ruling was its proximity to other licensed premises. The case involved a drink map of the area and this led to the Temperance Movement to seek to leverage value from the ruling by presenting drink maps to magistrates in many other areas as evidence towards potentially rejecting licence applications and renewals.
This led to many maps being produced around the UK. But did drink maps actually work? Butler does not deliver a conclusive verdict but does highlight that in 1886 a map of Leicester includes 748 drink locations and in 1904 there were 844 locations so the Temperance Movement lacked effect in some areas for sure.
The book encompasses lots of detail on notable licences and applications along with a look at Charles Booth and his well-known poverty maps that later included public houses. Quotes from Booth highlight rather sensibly how he regarded male drunkenness as having reduced as a result of public houses proving increasingly acceptable venues for female drinkers, which changed social behaviour. However, he rather tarnishes his reputation by adding that drunkenness in women was more common after marriage and that “it is not until they get older that women become regular soakers”.
The potential dryness of the topic of Drink Maps is overcome by the accessibility of Butler’s writing style and anybody interested in beer and its social impact will find plenty of interest in this publication.
Drink Maps in Victorian Britain is available from Bodleian Library Publishing.
Glynn Davis, editor, Beer Insider