A book exploring the history of drinking in Victorian Britain via ‘drink maps’ created by the temperance movement has been published by the Bodleian Library.
“This is the story of drink maps, and it’s probably not what you think. It’s not about pub crawls or plotted ale trails,” said author Kris Butler.
“Instead these are maps with an agenda that was adamantly hostile to drinking alcohol, made by an organised faction known as the temperance movement. The logic at the time of the maps’ creation went as follows: if people are shown how many places there are to buy alcohol, they will be so appalled that they will join the effort to end drinking. In hindsight this logic is obviously flawed.”
Drink Maps in Victorian Britain explores how drink maps of cities were published to fight increasingly rampant alcohol consumption, from Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield to Oxford, London, and Norwich.
Kris Butler is also a lawyer, past president of the Boston Map Society, and currently serves on the board of the Washington Map Society. She is also an award-winning home brewer and a contributor to MAP: Exploring the World, published by Phaidon. She has done numerous talks about drink maps in the US and also at the International Conference of the History of Cartography in Amsterdam.
Drink Maps in Victorian Britain is published by Bodleian Libraries at £25.
