Beer Street, 1751

Beer Street 1751 IMG

In contrast to the off-putting depiction of the chaotic conditions in "Gin Lane", "Beer Street" shows a harmonious scene. With this engraving, William Hogarth (1697–1764) sought to draw attention to the refreshing and inspiring properties of the low-proof drink, which – in contrast to gin, which had been introduced from the Netherlands – was considered a British national drink.

William Hogarth (1697–1764), Beer Street, 1759 (original in 1751), 38.5 x 32 cm, steel engraving; source: © The Trustees of the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0822-1593, Creative Commons Some Rights Reserved Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.