This day in London history: on 4 December 1732, John Gay, English poet (Beggar’s Opera), died aged 47. John Gay is perhaps most famous for his satirical ballad opera The Beggar’s Opera, with its central character of Macheath.
The opera, adapted by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, would later become The Threepenny Opera and one of its songs, Mack the Knife, was recorded by various people including Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, but was a big hit for Bobby Darin.
Macheath was based on a notorious highwayman of the time, Jack Sheppard, who often sought refuge in what was, at the time, one of London’s criminal quarters and a sanctuary for thieves and debtors. The area, which lives on in Mint Street, was called the Mint, former site of a Royal Mint established by Henry VIII. There is also a character called Matt of the Mint in The Beggar’s Opera.
The Beggar’s Opera had been suggested by two of Gay’s friends, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, and Swift also provided ideas for another of Gay’s works: Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, a poem in three books. One of the places Gay mentions in this poem is Seven Dials:
Where famed St Giles’s ancient limits spread
An in-rail’s column rears its lofty head
Here to seven streets seven dials count their day
And from each other catch the circling ray
Seven Dials was an early exercise in town planning: in 1693 the Master of the Royal Mint, Sir Thomas Neale, purchased a meadow in what is now the heart of London’s Soho. He planned seven streets radiating from a central point where there was a six-sided column with a sun dial on each face.
Some say the seventh ‘dial’ comes from the column itself; others that the column was commissioned before a change of plan meant there were seven streets instead of six.
The column was taken down 1773 when a false rumour circulated to the effect that money was hidden in the base, and it was re-erected in Weybridge Green.
Gay was one of the victims of the disastrous ‘South Sea Bubble’ scheme, speculation that ruined the purses and lives of thousands of investors. It started with the South Sea Company, given exclusive trading rights first with South America and then the South Seas. The company originally planned to convert the National Debt to a lower rate of interest and then take it over completely.
Money poured into the scheme, resulting in gross over-speculation and the eventual bursting of the bubble. It was not just the unwary investors who were ruined financially: Members of Parliament were shown to have taken bribes and the bubble was a national scandal.
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9 responses to “Beggars, a Bubble, and the six faces of Seven Dials”
[…] Inn Fields, was responsible for the building of the first Opera House: in 1728 he commissioned The Beggar’s Opera from John Gay. This was successful enough to provide the funds to build the first Theatre Royal at Covent Garden, […]
[…] any event, Jonathan’s was also the scene of the disastrous ‘South Sea Bubble’ scheme, speculation that ruined the purses and lives of thousands of investors. It started with the […]
[…] which is where he showed the manuscript of Gulliver’s Travels to, among other, John Gay and Alexander Pope. It was published anonymously as a true account by Lemuel […]
[…] Newgate were Ben Jonson; Daniel Defoe; Jack Sheppard, the inspiration for Macheath in John Gay’s The Beggars’ Opera; and Thomas Neill Cream, a serial poisoner who claimed to be Jack the […]
[…] its demolition in 1557; smaller houses were then built in the area. Until the early 18th century the area was a criminal quarter, a recognized sanctuary for thieves and debtors, and a haunting ground for marriage […]
[…] are a few, including Short Street, Shorter Street, and Short’s Gardens. Short’s Gardens, near Seven Dials, was named for William Short who acquired land here in 1590 and Short Street was named for a […]
[…] Seven Dials, which has been covered before in this blog, was an early exercise in town planning (and possibly getting it wrong). In the 17th century the Master of the Royal Mint, Sir Thomas Neale, planned seven streets radiating from a central point where there was a column with a sun dial on each face. However, the column had only six faces. […]
[…] have had time, but her husband was one of the unfortunate people who lost vast sums of money in the South Sea Bubble, so she may not have been in the […]
[…] have had time, but her husband was one of the unfortunate people who lost vast sums of money in the South Sea Bubble, so she may not have been in the […]