CITY OF GINS

A HANDFUL OF SPARKLING, 19TH-CENTURY GIN JOINTS LINGER IN LONDON, BUILT ON STORIES OF SOZZLED SOLDIERS WIELDING BAYONETS TO EXECUTION PARTIES ACCOMPANIED BY GOBLETS OF GIN

- JULIAN MANNING

WHAT IS A GIN PALACE?

London lavishes in its Victorian gin palaces. These 19th-century gin outlets speckle the British capital, from Holborn to Haringey, their birthplace. Step inside, and you enter a universe of stained glass, heavy mahogany island bars, miraculous mirror work, and, now ornamental, gas lamps-all built in the name of gin.

In the early 19th century gin shops were incentivised by better tax breaks than alehouses, attainable licenses, and serious funding from investors eager to reestablish the profitable gin market of the early 18th century: an era known as the Gin Craze. Damp public houses were bought over and outfitted with luxurious atmospheres. Their sparkling interiors drew in all ilk of Londoners like moths to lamplight, the expansive countertops full of busy bar attendants pouring pennyworths of Old Tom and Cream gin served from casks, and later London Dry.