For Londoners of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, debt was a
part of everyday life. But when your creditors lost their patience, you
might be thrown into one of the capital's most notorious jails: the
Marshalsea Debtors' Prison.
In Mansions of Misery, acclaimed chronicler of the capital Jerry White
introduces us to the Marshalsea's unfortunate prisoners - rich and poor;
men and women; spongers, fraudsters and innocents. We get to know the
trumpeter John Grano who wined and dined with the prison governor and
continued to compose music whilst other prisoners were tortured and
starved to death. We meet the bare-knuckle fighter known as the Bold
Smuggler, who fell on hard times after being beaten by the Chelsea Snob.
And then there's Joshua Reeve Lowe, who saved Queen Victoria from
assassination in Hyde Park in 1820, but whose heroism couldn't save him
from the Marshalsea. Told through these extraordinary lives, Mansions
of Misery gives us a fascinating and unforgettable cross-section of
London life from the early 1700s to the 1840s.