Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 1d

Doré came to London to work on a book The London Pilgrimage. He drew all sorts, depicting the poor as diverse and busy, whereas his rich look bland and dull. Odd commentary for a tourist? He spent a lot of time looking and his point of view shines through. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

1 2

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 1d

No wonder so many risked the death sentence for stealing. No wonder Jack Sheppard was a popular hero for escaping from the clink many times and helping partner Bess escape too. No wonder thief-taker Jonathan Wild was hated, his execution celebrated. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

1

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 1d

Poor wages didn't reach to renting rooms, so dosshouses were essential. You could cook if you had ingredients and you could drink and smoke. It was close social life. Later you slept on a rope or sitting up unless you had extra pence to lie on the floor. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

1 1

Reposted by Laura Agustín

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 1d

Living in cellars appalled Victorian reformers who saw them as fit for worms, not humans. Gustave Doré drew cellar-entries to shoe-shops (Doré wasn't appalled). You can see entries to cellars on surviving 18c facades in Tower Court. This Saturday 11 Oct. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

1 3

Reposted by Laura Agustín

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 11d

Thief and escape-artist Jack Sheppard spars with corrupt thief-taker Jonathan Wild in poor streets and night-cellars thronged with whores, spies and slum-tourists in a Beggar's Opera of a walk. 11 Oct. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

Gin Lane: Thieves and Thief-takers in the Night-Cellars of St Giles

Thief and escape-artist Jack Sheppard sparred with thief-taker Jonathan Wild in streets thronged with gin-sellers, sex workers and beggars.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

2 2 3

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 1d

Living in cellars appalled Victorian reformers who saw them as fit for worms, not humans. Gustave Doré drew cellar-entries to shoe-shops (Doré wasn't appalled). You can see entries to cellars on surviving 18c facades in Tower Court. This Saturday 11 Oct. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

1 3

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 11d

Hogarth shows the Idle Apprentice, fallen into bad company (a prostitute), selling stolen goods to a fence in a drinking cellar. Girlfriend is grassing him up to a thief-taker because Hogarth couldn't imagine the sex worker could be loyal. Murder at lower right. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

Gin Lane: Thieves and Thief-takers in the Night-Cellars of St Giles

Thief and escape-artist Jack Sheppard sparred with thief-taker Jonathan Wild in streets thronged with gin-sellers, sex workers and beggars.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

2

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 11d

Thief and escape-artist Jack Sheppard spars with corrupt thief-taker Jonathan Wild in poor streets and night-cellars thronged with whores, spies and slum-tourists in a Beggar's Opera of a walk. 11 Oct. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gin-lane-t...

Gin Lane: Thieves and Thief-takers in the Night-Cellars of St Giles

Thief and escape-artist Jack Sheppard sparred with thief-taker Jonathan Wild in streets thronged with gin-sellers, sex workers and beggars.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

2 2 3

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 21d

heavenly, I'll have it in the background as folks arrive.

1

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 21d

Yes I know it. My navvies walk begins with the building of the Regent's Canal, earlier, and proceeds to railways, both constructions having determined what the area of Primrose Hill came to look like.

1 1

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 21d

Slagging off the 60s is now common, as if the lack of revolution were proof of failure. I value highly what I learned and was part of and still drives me. I'm surrounded by people who are shocked by conservatve backward thinking, but that now seems the norm to me and we the odd ones out.

1 1 1

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 22d

For a long time I believed in 'progress', now I see the zeitgeist I lived as a blip in the radar as things roll backwards.

1 3

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 22d

Are they claiming delicate sons of the conferacy did the digging? Fat chance. Before this historians might give them a mention but gave the engineers most of the credit.

1

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks to @londonist.com for listing this Sunday's walk. For Railway200 I celebrate folks who did the hard graft, called diggers, miners, cutters, bankers and navigators for digging navigation canals. By hand. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-to...

1 1

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 23d

In celebrations of the invention of the modern railway, engineers get the credit. What about the navvies who not only dug but helped find solutions to problems and obstacles? At Primrose Hill you see what they did up close, including the Regent's Canal. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/primrose-h...

Primrose Hill and the Navvies Who Built the Railways

Primrose Hill was born when navvies dug out the land by hand, bringing grime, racket, hard drinking and what some called Moral Depravity.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

4 7 29

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · 29d

That was among my sources.

1

Reposted by Laura Agustín

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thanks @londonist.com for listing a walk in a part of the East End few Londoners know, from Tower Hill SE to the river to hear about poor working women selling old clothes, tools, food and sex to sailors and dockworkers. @footprintsoflondon.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tumult-of-...

Tumult of Women - Rag Fair, Rosemary Lane, Brothels and the Docks

East of the Tower rag-sellers, sex workers, thieves and so-called witches held sway in an area flattened by building the 1805 dock.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

1 4 6

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thanks @londonist.com for listing a walk in a part of the East End few Londoners know, from Tower Hill SE to the river to hear about poor working women selling old clothes, tools, food and sex to sailors and dockworkers. @footprintsoflondon.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tumult-of-...

Tumult of Women - Rag Fair, Rosemary Lane, Brothels and the Docks

East of the Tower rag-sellers, sex workers, thieves and so-called witches held sway in an area flattened by building the 1805 dock.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

1 4 6

Reposted by Laura Agustín

Maggie McNeill @maggiemcneill.bsky.social · Sep 4

Two Years Ago Today: @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social introduces her new project: maggiemcneill.com/2023/09/04/g...

Guest Columnist: Laura Agustín

Regular readers need no introduction to Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist, whose groundbreaking book Sex At the Margins introduced the term “rescue industry” and set the bar for c…

maggiemcneill.com

1 3 2

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Aug 16

The Bourne Estate, where Irish and Italian workers lived side-by-side and the new block is named for Olaudah Equiano. Not ghettos but mixing. @footprintsoflondon.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/historic-w...

Historic Workingclass Migrations to London: Irish, Italian, African, Jewish

Diamond-polishing, ice-cream selling, pocket-picking, writing memoirs: Migrants to London have done them all while working to make a living.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Aug 16

Thanks @londonist.com for listing next Saturday's migration walk in the backstreets of Holborn. You've heard about the Italians but what about the Irish and freedom-seeking slaves? Not to mention the Jewish diaspora. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/historic-w...

1 1 6

Reposted by Laura Agustín

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Jul 21

The always sold-out sex-industry walk is scheduled for a weekday in August: Friday the 15th. One stop is seen here in William Hogarth's picture of the Rose Tavern, showing Tom Rakewell, a lot of hookers and a woman undressing for a dance. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/londons-se...

London's Sex Industry and the Stage in the Long 18th Century

When the Puritan Protectorate ended in 1660, London's sex industry grew wildly public and was linked to both theatres and the underworld.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

5 7

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Jul 21

The always sold-out sex-industry walk is scheduled for a weekday in August: Friday the 15th. One stop is seen here in William Hogarth's picture of the Rose Tavern, showing Tom Rakewell, a lot of hookers and a woman undressing for a dance. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/londons-se...

London's Sex Industry and the Stage in the Long 18th Century

When the Puritan Protectorate ended in 1660, London's sex industry grew wildly public and was linked to both theatres and the underworld.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

5 7

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Jul 12

Thanks @Londonist for listing Wind in the Willows, a riverside walk that can't be bettered for beautiful houses, women's history, dreamy views and habitat for creatures of the river. Sat 19 July. @footprintsoflondon.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walking-to...

Wind in the Willows - the Thames riverside from Richmond to Twickenham

Richmond is Sir David Attenborough's favourite place on the planet, and the stretch of the river to Twickenham is the very best part.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

2 3

Reposted by Laura Agustín

Laura Agustín @nakedanthropolo.bsky.social · Jun 12

Thanks to @londonist.com for listing a walk that centres the workers: navvies who solved problems on the ground as they dug canals and railways. 14 June. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/primrose-h...

2 1