Salon No.27: Sailortown: London Port

Nautical but nice

Ticket includes a tot of Salon Gin Punch for landlubbers

Ahoy. London has always been a port. Until a hundred years ago, the river was was once so crowded with ships that it was said you could cross without getting wet. Our speakers Alex Werner and Amber Butchart row us back to its Victorian heyday and show how its images and inhabitants were set sail upon the seas of London psyche.

A soundtrack for the city will be provided by The Clerkenwell Kid.
Hendricks will be on hand to provide the gin.

London's nineteenth century 'Sailor Town' centered on a few distinct localities close to the London docks and the river Thames. Above all, it was Ratcliff Highway and the surrounding area, lined with taverns, dance halls, brothels and lodging houses, that attracted sailors of all nationalities. The streets and alleys in the vicinity were dangerous, lawless places at night. The popular press featured regular reports of petty and violent crimes committed there while journalists wrote colourful essays of the vice and depravity of ‘Tiger Bay’. Alex Werner of the Museum of London Docklands, joins us to tell stories of this real and mythical place which became so important in the Victorian imagination.

Then, Salon alumni fashion historian Amber Jane Butchart takes us on a long languorous over-the-shoulder look at the fantasy image of the 19th century London sailor and the cult of 'sailor style'. Amber examines how this humble Victorian creature became sexualised and objectified in the Illustrated London News. She describes the subsequent transition of sailor uniform into fashionable dress, women cross dressing as sailors in the London Music Halls and the birth of a gay icon in popular media and visual culture.