"Walking for Pleasure'' in the 18th Century

"Walking for Pleasure'' in the 18th Century

"You are clean Fair Lady but our Ways and Means are Dirty." Mezzotint, 1791. London. Printed for Robert Sayer. Guildhall Library, Print Room, 16903. Courtesy of the Corporation of London.

This image represents the difficulty of mobility for the high class in 18th century Britain. The streets were dirty and people could not walk for pleasure. Walking was restricted to ‘‘private squares and pleasure gardens’’. The poor conditions of roads created the necessity of having shoe cleaners and street sweepers along the roads, which was a quite widespread custom in that time.

Anonymous

"The Art and Science of Walking:Gender, Space,
and the Fashionable Body in the Long Eighteenth Century" by Peter McNeil and Giorgio Riello. Fashion Theory, Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 175–204.

Albeity, Heba

I acknowledge that this item has been fully and correctly documented and that I am within my rights to upload it to this collection.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes