Crazy Gin Palaces of Victorian London (19th Century Drinking Dens)

Gin Palaces were 'perfectly dazzling' to Charles Dickens. A flashy show that was only a veneer for rough clientele and a rowdy atmosphere. They were hugely popular in the Victorian era and attracted the rich and poor alike to drink spirits, but the well-to-do were screened from the 'riff-raff ,' who came in separately for their dram, before quickly moving on to the next magnet of temptation. But, with numerous stories of the pernicious evils of drink (like the ones you will hear today) and the rise of the temperance movement later in the century, the heyday of the gin palace was numbered