Grub Street and London Low Life

Abstract

While today, Grub Street is mostly understood in its metaphorical sense, in the eighteenth century, Grub Street was an actual street in London. In 1830, however, Grub Street was renamed Milton Street, which in turn has been virtually swallowed up by today’s Barbican Centre, a “loss of physical presence” (Rogers 1972: 1) that Rogers deeply regrets, for it obscures the significance of the term Grub Street. Grub Street was located in an economically deprived area of London outside the city walls (cf. ibid. 4) and the close geographical proximity to Moorfields and Bedlam linked Grub Street to prostitution and madness, contributing to its dubious reputation.