is an etching published as a print in February 1751. It idealistically contrasts the wholesomeness of beer drinking with the degradation that results from unbridled gin drinking as depicted in the artist’s companion piece, Gin Lane. Deregulation of the production and sale of spirits led to excessive consumption of gin in London between the 1720s and the 1750s. Beer Street and Gin Lane together represent a morality tale aimed at the lower classes who were considered to be the main offenders. Starvation, infanticide, squalor, despair, and madness stalk Gin Lane with a shocking central image of a bare-breasted woman, sodden with gin, unknowingly spilling a child from her arms so that he tumbles to the ground. These images are contrasted with the thriving commerce, healthy industrious populace, and general bonhomie of Beer Street. Both prints show drinking, but in Gin Lane it is instead of working, whilst in Beer Street it is the well- earned relaxation of workers with the tools of their trade around them enjoying foaming tankards of ale. Only the pawnbroker suffers in Beer Street. As the prints sold for one shilling (5p) each, they would have been beyond the pocket of the poorest, but they were widely displayed and were snapped up by the voting classes. A few months after the prints appeared the Gin Act was passed, increasing the price of gin and restricting its availability. The “gin craze,” which was already on the wane, subsided—a rare case of art influencing public opinion and legislation.

See also beer in art.