Discover the Gin Craze in 18th-century London: why cheap gin spread, from Hogarth’s Gin Lane to the 1751 act—how reform, rising tea and oversight ended chaos.
In the 1700s, something strange and unsettling gripped London. The city plunged into a craze for alcohol—gin above all. It was poured everywhere, sold on every corner, and the fallout was so severe that people still talk about it. That period became known as the Gin Craze, and it lasted for more than thirty years.
Policy choices drove gin’s rise. The authorities wanted to curb imports of French liquor and support local producers. Gin fit the brief: cheap, strong, and easy to make. Anyone could sell it—no license required.
By 1730, London had around 7,000 places to buy gin, and annual production reached 10 million gallons. It wasn’t a drink for the elite but for ordinary people; men, women, and even children drank it.
With such easy access came trouble. People began drinking far too much. Crime climbed, families fell apart, and many lost their grip on dignity. Gin offered a quick escape, but it delivered more harm than relief.
In 1751, the artist William Hogarth captured this split in two prints. Beer Street shows people at work, smiling, life ticking along. Gin Lane is its grim mirror: drunkards collapsing in the streets, a mother dropping her child, buildings on the brink. The contrast still speaks louder than any report, and the images became lasting symbols of the time.
Efforts to restore order came, but success was slow. Over twenty years, lawmakers passed five acts to rein in gin sales. In 1736 they introduced costly licenses and heavy taxes, which only fueled a black market—gin reappeared as a “medicine.”
Real change followed the 1751 act. It barred small retailers from selling spirits, tightened oversight, and sharply restricted distribution. Production then plunged: from 18 million gallons in 1743 to under two million eight years later.
It wasn’t just the law that turned the tide. Grain grew more expensive, people earned less, and fashion shifted. Gin lost its shine, while tea moved into everyday British life. The swap was simple: a mug of tea instead of a glass of gin.
The Gin Craze is more than a tale of a “drunken” London; it’s a warning. When hardship is widespread and strong drink is easy to get, the damage can be profound. Yet the larger point is that change is possible—if control, common sense, and a measure of care work together.
Today, gin is back in vogue, but in a different guise: a stylish bar drink, not a way to forget. The past, it seems, still has lessons worth heeding.