Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus & class distinction

~ Courtney K.

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One of London’s lovely roundabouts, Piccadilly Circus connects an array of different streets together, including one of more famous streets–Regent Street. Yet, after coming up Piccadilly street, the circle homes many of London’s middle class as well as visitors from all around the city thanks to the omnibus chartering people around from place to place. As illustrated in In Dull Brown by Evelyn Sharp, the contrast in clothing displayed on the omnibus that Jean and Tom road around London “‘That comes of the simple russet gown,’ she thought ; ‘of
course he thinks I am a little shop-girl'” becomes a symbol of the middle class making up the Circus (182). The brown gown that Jean wears is one associated with the working class rather than the “monotony of black coats and umbrellas” of the upper class London citizens (185). The omnibus allows a mixing of classes where the rich and the less-than-rich ride around London with ease in order to get from place to place; converging rather than segregating the class systems. To further explore the class surrounding the massive circle, “Charles Booth Online Archive” provides maps with the layout of the impoverished.

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Locals surrounding the Circus

 

 

 

 

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As shown by the picture above, the red surrounding Piccadilly street and the Circus were well-off, middle class ladies and gents.

Upon further inspection of the Circus area of London, deep in “the  Proceedings of the Old Bailey” records online, many crimes of theft had been recorded during London’s history. According to various court recordings from various different men of working class vocation (typically carpenters, shoe makers, guilder, barmen, etc), many accounts of larceny and pick-pocketing had occurred within the Piccadilly area of Victorian London. From one of the pick-pocket accounts on the Bailey’s website archives, the defendant went on to elaborate about the crime:  “I felt a pull at my pocket; I turned and saw the prisoner drop my handkerchief; I laid hold of him,” and in turn the thief, a man of 18, pleaded guilty and had served fourteen years (Old Bailey). An astoundingly lengthy amount of time to serve for a handkerchief of only 5 shillings. Then again, better than losing one’s hands for pleading guilty to theft. The concentration of crime in the Circus, and even the pick-pocketing of cloth could have to do more-so with the sanitation problem striking London during this time. Thanks to the incorporation of omnibuses, the amount of pollution in the air and sickness running rapid could cause the need to steal personal items or money from those within the large area. That, or poverty from the surrounding streets brought out the need to reach into pockets of the rich despite the harsh, long sentences stapled to those found guilty.

 

Works Cited:

“The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.” Results. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2015

“The Charles Booth Online Archive.” Results. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2015

“In Dull Brown.” The Yellow Nineties Online – Search the Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2015.

Piccadilly Circus- “In Dull Brown”

~ Heather Ryan

Piccadilly Circus is an intersection in West London that connects Regent Street to other throughways of London. (Survey of London.) Most notably it joined Regent Street to Shaftesbury Avenue after the latters completion in 1886. After this, Piccadilly Circus lost its circular shape.

PicadillyCircus

As we can see from the Booth Archive, Piccadilly Circus in the late 1890s was a middle-class neighborhood with well-off inhabitants. Piccadillysocioeconomic

It is also where the heroine of the story “In Dull Brown” by Evelyn Sharp, Jean, gets off the omnibus and goes to work as a tutor for a wealthy family. This exemplifies the class different between Jean and her suitor, Tom Unwin. Tom may get off at this stop in the hopes of seeing her because he has no other demands on his time. But for Jean, the only time she will see Piccadilly is for her business. And even then she does not have all the time in the world to chat with Tom. She is constantly aware of the limit to her personal time. Piccadilly acts like a barrier between Jean and Tom. On one side of it she is a woman free to go about as she pleases, but on the other she is an worker who must always be aware of how she might be viewed by her employer. At one point Jean frets over the bad example she would be if her students saw her talking with a strange man she was never introduced with. While Piccadilly Circus may connect East and West London, what it means to Jean is a division between her and Tom.

 

Sharp, Evelyn. “In Dull Brown.” The Yellow Book 8 (January 1896): 181-200. The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University, 2012. Web. [Date of access]. http://1890s.ca/HTML.aspx?s=YBV8_sharp_dull.html

‘The rebuilding of Piccadilly Circus and the Regent Street Quadrant.’ Survey of London: Volumes 31 and 32, St James Westminster, Part 2. Ed. F H W Sheppard. London: London County Council, 1963. 85-100. British History Online. Web. 9 September 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols31-2/pt2/pp85-100.

“Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive).” Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2015.