"Gin Lane" and "Beer Street"

Thomas Hogarth, that commentator on London society via his paintings and etchings, tried to dissuade people from drinking gin and convince them to drink beer. Therefore, in 1751 he published “Gin Lane” and “Beer Street.”

In “Gin Lane” (above) Hogarth depicts the evils of gin. We begin in the center with the mother – a prostitute with syphilitic sores on her legs – who is so drunk she lets her baby fall into a gin den below. When you look to the left, a neglected child fights with a dog over a bone to chew on. Above the child, a man and woman are pawning their tools for gin – he his carpentry tools and she her cooking pots. To the right of them, a dead woman is loaded into a casket while her abandoned child is left on the ground. The drunk in the wheelbarrow is being given more gin, while the woman on the far right is feeding her baby gin. In front, a man who has sold his clothes for gin apparently has died, while an anti-alcohol pamphlet, “The Downfalls of Mrs. Gin” falls out of his basket.

 

In “Beer Street” (above) although people are drinking they are relaxing after work and have their work tools with them. People are prosperous, happy, and affectionate. Yes, there is a crumbling building to the right of the picture, but it is the pawnbroker, who needs his beer delivered through a window possibly because he is so poor he can’t come out.
These and other efforts led to the increased restriction of gin sales and when the price of grain to make gin rose, “the gin problem” decreased throughout the second half of the 18th century (Olsen, 240).
Both images from Wellcome Library, London.
There is a really nice comparison between the two depictions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street , if you are interested.