History

The consumption of alcohol was a key part of Victorian city life. To the concern of social commentators, including Charles Dickens, so-called gin palaces emerged often in industrial and socially deprived areas as boozy places of refuge for exhausted workers and the many who depended on alcohol to cope with the struggles of day-to-day life. Contrasting the often-squalid areas that they occupied, gin palaces got their name since they were often plushily decorated and gas lit. A lot of concern surrounded the clientele of these establishments and the indecent behaviour that went on in and around them.