Gallows ballads in Victorian London
April 1, 2010 8:37 AM Subscribe
Gallows ballads in Victorian London
British Broadsides were the murder ballads of Victorian England. Sold at chaotic public hangings, these lurid songs decribed the condemned man’s crime and warned spectators not to follow his example. The ballads were written and printed by the drunks, jailbirds and rogues of London’s notorious Seven Dials slum, whose most sensational offerings could sell 2.5m copies each. PlanetSlade’s latest essay has news of all this, plus an introduction to Mary Arnold the Female Monster, a gallery of the original broadsides and some Victorian sex songs like The Beautiful Muff.
British Broadsides were the murder ballads of Victorian England. Sold at chaotic public hangings, these lurid songs decribed the condemned man’s crime and warned spectators not to follow his example. The ballads were written and printed by the drunks, jailbirds and rogues of London’s notorious Seven Dials slum, whose most sensational offerings could sell 2.5m copies each. PlanetSlade’s latest essay has news of all this, plus an introduction to Mary Arnold the Female Monster, a gallery of the original broadsides and some Victorian sex songs like The Beautiful Muff.
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