East India Co's sales
East India porcelain
Queen's Royal Cookery
Cabinet of curiosities
Sugar in Britain
Bartholomew Fair
Gulliver's Travels
Executions at Tyburn
Textile production
Cities in chaos
East India textiles
The Harlot’s Progress
Handel's Messiah
Advert for a giant
Surgery
Muffin Seller
JS Bach manuscript
The Art of Cookery
Henry Fielding: Crime
Gin addiction
Ranelagh pleasure gardens
Johnson's Dictionary
'The British Giant'
Jigsaw Puzzle Map
The Spinning Jenny
Pleasure gardens
Factories
London prostitutes
Captain Cook's journal
Declaration of Independence
Map of the Gordon Riots
Storming of the Bastille
Runaway slaves
First curry powder advert
First hot air balloon
Abolitionist meeting notes
Georgian entertainments
Georgian Theatre
Mozart’s notebook
Poverty
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man
Mary Wollstonecraft
Execution of Louis XVI
William Blake's Notebook
An acrobat's 'Surprising Performances'
Bartholomew Fair was by far the largest and most spectacular event of its kind, and was the scene of much public excitement. Held in London every September for four days, the thousands of visitors who went there could witness dozens of entertainments and spectacles: tumblers, acrobatics and tightrope walkers, for example, or exhibitions of exotic animals, boxing competitions, puppet shows and displays of human strength. There were dozens of ‘booths’ selling a wide range of foods such as gingerbread, nuts, puddings, sausages and hot pies to the huge crowds. Vast quantities of alcohol were consumed there, which was the cause of much concern to local authorities. This image from 1721 shows details of these entertainments.