Journeys into the nocturnal city
7.00pm Thursday 27th October 2022
The Horse Hospital
Collonade
London
WC1N 1JD
WC1N 1JD
Admission: Tickets £8.00/ £10.00 in advance only HERE
“Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night” wrote Rupert Brooke. This month, we shine a light on the nocturnal city - before and after the transformations brought by lamp light
London was the first city in the world to have gas lighting. The City at night before this radical technical innovation was a very different place to that we know today.
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Historian MATTHEW BEAUMONT recounts an alternative history of the metropolis by focusing on the denizens who surfaced on the streets when the sun’s down- the lost, the vagrant and the nocturnal walkers.
We discover how the nocturnal city has inspired some and served as a balm or narcotic to poets, novelists and thinkers including Chaucer and Shakespeare; William Blake and the feverish ramblings of opium addict Thomas De Quincey; and we hear of the journeys of the lamp-lit literary throng. including the supreme nightwalker Charles Dickens.
London was transformed when the introduction of gas lighting extended the day into the night. Engineer and family historian CHRISTOPHER SUGG joins us to tell the tale of William Sugg Ltd., the company founded by his great, great grandfather and one of the most important providers of the infrastructure that lit London for over 100 years.
As well as many other improvements in daily life, we hear how gas illuminated the shadows and brought radical changes to work and play, safety and hygiene, cooking and culture. And we learn something of the fascinating history of the lamp-lit city as its last lingering light is being threatened.
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PROF. MATTHEW BEAUMONT teaches literature at University College London and writes on London.
His most recent books are The Walker: On Losing and Finding Oneself in the Modern City, Lev Shestov: Philosopher of the Sleepless Night and
Nightwalking A Nocturnal History of London
His most recent books are The Walker: On Losing and Finding Oneself in the Modern City, Lev Shestov: Philosopher of the Sleepless Night and
Nightwalking A Nocturnal History of London
CHRISTOPHER SUGG is the author of an online archive detailing the extraordinary legacy of William Sugg & Co. and creator of a resource for the history of the gas-powered city.
Photogravures from London Night (1934) by John Morrison and Harold Burdekin
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Built in 1797 by James Burton. the shell is constructed with London Stocks whilst the interior features a mock cobbled re-inforced concrete floor and ramps with slats to prevent the horses from slipping. Each floor has 5 cast iron pillars and several original iron tethering rings.