On 28 Oct 2013, at 1:55 PM, Julia Mosman wrote(snip): > Might anyone know what a "gin palace system" might have been? (see > the case of Brendon). > DANIEL BRENDON, appellant: JUSTICES of LISKEARD, respondents. Mr. > SHILSON appeared for the appellant; the respondents were > unrepresented, and, in fact, there was no opposition to the appeal.. > [The Justices of Liskeard refused to grant a license to the > appellant for selling wines and spirits by retail. Mr. Brenden, it > appeared, was already duly licensed as an ale and porter merchant, > and he was desirous of procuring a license to enable him to sell > wines and spirits in quantities less than two gallons. His object > was not to open a shop, or sell spirits over the counter or for > consumption on his premises, but to provide his customers with > amounts less than two gallons. He did not want his customers having > to send their children to public houses for such purchases..There > was no resistance to the application - in fact, there was a > "numerously and very respectably signed memorial" from the > residents requesting this application be approved. On Mr. Brendon's > assurances and promises to not use his premises as a public house, > nor sell for consumption on his premises, the court granted the > license, at the same time expressing very strongly their > determination to discourage an introduction into Cornwall of > anything like the gin palace system. There are copious references to Gin Palaces in Dickens' "Sketches by Boz", but what the system was I don't know, and it might well have varied over time. The whole licensing system for the sale of ales, wines and spirits seems to have been developed during the 18th and 19th centuries, with frequent changes to the regulations regarding both retail sales (both in bottles and served as drinks for consumption on the premises) and wholesale firms, interacting with changes in the manner and amount of taxation imposed on the trade. These changes brought about corresponding changes to the structure of the industry, with different types of business attracting the formation of shorthand or slang names for the businesses concerned, and Gin Palace would have been one of those, with the relevant regulation that brought them about being called the Gin Palace System for short. Probably a search of the local newspapers of the time would be the best place to start. Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com

The gin palace system was a reaction to the Beer Act 1830 (GB) which had licensed beer shops with which the old taverns were competing on unfavourable terms. The publicans - and others who bought the leases of failed taverns - built or re-built lavishly decorated and, using gaslight, well lit inviting "palaces". Previously gin was bought and consumed under the dram system - drinkers would go to the gin dram shop and buy their gin to be consumed off premises - at home or in the street. The palaces offered an inviting place for drinkers to buy their gin by the glass to be consumed at the bar on the premises. This is described in Nicholas Mason, ""The Sovereign People Are in a Beastly State": The Beer Act of 1830 and Victorian Discourse on Working-Class Drunkenness" (2001) 29 Victorian Literature and Culture pp. 109-127. By 1835 the system and its results were, as has been noted, described by Dickens in his "Gin Shops" which he later included in Sketches by Boz. It is worth a read. Dickens journalism is as fresh today as it was when first published: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/882/882-h/882-h.htm See: CHAPTER XXII—GIN-SHOPS By late Victorian times the expression "gin palace" was recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as " A gaudily decorated public house.". Regards