The Rookery and Seven Dials areas of St Giles were once London’s most infamous neighbourhoods of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Rookery was London’s most notorious slum, the setting for Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’ (1751); a pit of degradation, crime and deprivation that would amaze us today. Seven Dials was the hub for broadside ballad production, with the most popular ballads selling millions of copies. They were sold cheaply by hawkers in the streets, and covered everything from crime and politics to sport and scandal – the social media of the time.

Local artist and curator Jane Palm-Gold has spent years researching the area: the people, their lives and the streets where the working poor and more undesirable residents of the locality lived side by side. In this illustrated talk, she vividly brings the history of the area to life and her findings are complimented by ballads written and printed in Seven Dials, performed by singer Vivien Ellis who gives voice to their lives, their loves, their work and worries, even their love of gin!