The Backstreet Regents

Curator of the Quirky, the Curious, and the Crazy aspects of Regency life. Creator of #FashionableVerse. Site contains humour. Well, whimsy at least.

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

A cartoon from 1832, showing the dangers of pumping raw Sewage into the Thames. I’m just so glad that our Government would never allow this to happen today…

(Warning: tweet may contain irony)

#EndSewagePollution @Jamie_Woodward_ #SewageScandal

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@MilesOgborn Thank you. It looks most interesting...

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

It’s Dr Johnson’s birthday and I can’t help wondering if he’s the only person ever to have both written a Dictionary and inspired a Brown Ale (from a Brewery he was "intimately connected" with, no less), as we raise a tankard in his honour. #otd #SamuelJohnson

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@JaneDunnAuthor @ronanbeckman Wow ! What a great find. It looks wonderful !

[Sir John Soane's Museum 🏛️🖼️ @SoaneMuseum]

On John Soane’s birthday, here’s London as he knew it! 🎈🏙️

Made from the roof of the Museum in June 1813 by one of Soane's pupils, this drawing – much like every view of London and every birthday – is a snapshot from an ongoing story, never to be repeated quite the same! 🎁

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@MulraineArt He was quite entertaining, by all accounts, and very popular in his day. And I do think we lost something when we stopped singing and making music together.

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

Did you know Charles Dibdin (1745 - 1814) was “the pre-eminent Musical Showman of his age”? If not, you may be unaware of the Advantage of Toping (drinking yourself silly), which he celebrated in song and deed.

He was also, amazingly, one of Jane Austen's favourite composers !

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@Stephen25367746 Indeed — although, it seems, primarily Song. The guy was like a composing machine, with over 1400 songs to his name !!

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@JaneDunnAuthor @bodleianlibs Hahaha !! It would indeed be an imposing feature in your home, and just the thing to fill a free 7 metres of wall space !

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@JaneDunnAuthor @bodleianlibs I agree, and I’m so happy that things such as this were created, and have survived. They give an invaluable insight into the period, as well as being a delight to explore.

[Bodleian Libraries @bodleianlibs]

Stretching from #London Regent street to Westminster abbey, this 7m long panorama was published in 1849. The level of detail that illustrator R. Sandeman and engraver G. C. Leighton put into this #Victorian view is astonishing.

Digitised on Digital Bodleian. G.A. Lond. 16° 187

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@BrettHethering Wonderful pic !

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@UltimaThule0000 PS The print of two men and an enormous telescope is just the sort of image the Backstreet Regents delight in. What a great find !

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@UltimaThule0000 A highly impressive essay, Ultima, perfectly complemented by your photos. Is it to eventually form part of a book?

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@AustenMicrocosm That’s the perfect quote for this picture !!

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@JaneDunnAuthor I guess it's just satirising the oversized headwear of the time & the newly-available undersized horses. The print was published by a woman (Mary Darly) so I hope its satire is at least affectionate! She & her husband developed a new Print genre, centring on extremes of Fashion.

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

I don’t often comment on Modern Female Taste, but I'd venture to say this Phaetona (or female driver of a Phaeton carriage) is very much in the vanguard !!

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@ronanbeckman Ha ha, indeed ! I just hope she’s not too hard on the poor little things, and that the whip is only for show !

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@YorkFHS @seabrkei I second that — this is the positive side of Twitter (a lot of the rest of it makes me shudder !)

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

If you ever find yourself in 1830s London, why not treat yourself to an exhilarating ride on Mr H. Thorrington’s famous Suspension Railway? You’ll be AMAZED, you’ll be THRILLED, you'll MARVEL at just how much fun you can have for a single shilling.

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@seabrkei @YorkFHS Yes, it was an insanely ambitious plan, which failed spectacularly. The Gardens opened in March 1830, but only lasted a couple of years, before being demolished in 1832. Strange to think how different that whole area would be today if the scheme had been a success.

[The Backstreet Regents @RegencyNights]

@YorkFHS We could do with them still being there today, but — as @seabrkei points out — they weren’t a great success (to put it mildly!) due to the indifference of the public, and closed within a couple of years of opening.