3-046-436 - Royal Academy of Arts, London/Heritage Images

Beer Street, 1 February 1751. "Beer, happy Produce of our Isle, Can sinewy Strength impart, And wearied with Fatigue and Toil Can cheer each manly Heart. Labour and Art upheld by Thee Successfully advance, We quaff Thy balmy Juice with Glee And Water leave to France. Genius of Health, thy grateful Taste Rivals the Cup of Jove, And warms each English generous Breast With Liberty and Love!" This print was published in support of a campaign directed against gin-drinking among London's poor. Consumption of cheap spirits by the poor had soared in the early eighteenth century, with dire social consequences. Beer Street celebrates the virtues of the mildly intoxicating traditional national drink.