Following gin's arrival in Britain with royal approval and government encouragement, what began as an economic opportunity quickly spiraled into a public health crisis. The early 18th century witnessed one of the most turbulent periods in British social history—the Gin Craze—a time when cheap, often toxic gin flooded the streets of London and earned the spirit its infamous nickname: "Mother's Ruin."
A Recipe for Disaster
In the early days of gin production in England, distillation methods were relatively simple and, thanks to government efforts to boost domestic production, anyone could legally distil gin as long as they advertised a "notice of intent" on their premises. No training, no quality standards, no oversight—just a notice and you were in business.
This initiated a huge wave of gin-making in England. Thousands of gin shops sprang up around the country between 1695 and 1735, with London bearing the brunt of this explosion. By some estimates, one in every four houses in certain London neighborhoods was selling gin by the 1720s.
Toxic Spirits and Desperate Measures
The resulting spirit was harsh at the best of times. To make "Common Gin" drinkable, unscrupulous producers often flavoured it with turpentine. To achieve a sweeter taste, some even distilled it in the presence of sulphuric acid. The result may have been inexpensive compared to other drinks, including beer, but it was barely palatable and often downright toxic.
However, because of its astonishingly low price, gin began to be widely drunk by the urban poor. At a time when a common labourer could earn 16-18 pence per day and a pound of cheese might cost 4 pence, just 1 penny would buy enough gin to get drunk—and 2 pence was enough to get "dead drunk," as the saying went.
Gin shops advertised their wares with signs promising customers they could be "drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pennies" and offering "clean straw for nothing"—a place to sleep it off. This was not marketing hyperbole; it was a grim reality.
The Social Cost
This period was marked by rapid urban growth and a correspondingly high demand for cheap housing. Living conditions in the resulting slums were appalling. Yet in spite of this—or more likely because of it—people were intent on producing and consuming huge quantities of gin in their homes as an escape from their desperate circumstances.
In 1726, it was estimated that there were 1,500 stills operating in residential houses in London alone. People were even said to be producing gin in their bathtubs—the original "bathtub gin," though the term would later become more famous during American Prohibition.
A City in Crisis
Matters were getting out of hand. In 1723, the death rate in London outstripped the birth rate for the first time in the city's history, and gin was blamed for lowering fertility and raising mortality. Infant mortality soared as mothers, addicted to cheap gin, neglected their children. The nickname "Mother's Ruin" reflected this tragic reality—gin was literally destroying families and communities.
Contemporary accounts described horrific scenes: children left to starve, violence in the streets, people selling their possessions—and even their children's clothes—for gin money. The social fabric of London's poorest neighborhoods was tearing apart.
In the face of this crisis, the British government finally started trying to curb the flow of gin that was producing what one contemporary observer called a "drunken ungovernable set of people." But curbing the gin craze would prove far more difficult than starting it had been.
Hogarth's Warning
The most famous artistic record of this period came from William Hogarth, whose 1751 print "Gin Lane" depicted the evil consequences of gin consumption. Issued alongside its companion piece "Beer Street," which portrayed happy, healthy beer drinkers, Hogarth's work showed a society in collapse: a drunken mother dropping her baby, a man being gnawed by a dog, buildings crumbling, and a pawnbroker's shop thriving as desperate people sold everything for gin money.
Produced toward the end of the Gin Craze, Hogarth's prints were intended as propaganda supporting parliamentary efforts to control gin consumption. While exaggerated for effect, the images captured real fears and reflected genuine social devastation that had gripped London for decades.
The government's attempts to control the gin epidemic through a series of Gin Acts would prove a fascinating—and often ineffective—exercise in social policy. The solutions were far from simple, and the battle between public health, personal liberty, and economic interests would rage throughout the 18th century before gin finally earned a more respectable place in British society.
Further Reading
- The Book of Gin Richard Barnett
- Gin: A Global History Lesley Jacobs Solmonson
- Gin Glorious Gin Olivia Williams
- London in the Eighteenth Century Jerry White