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Visitors and immigrants


A Jewish Clothes Trader and a Butcher, Robert Dighton, 1807, Watercolour and pencil


Satire very often reflects popular opinion, and attitudes towards visitors and immigrants to London can clearly be seen in satirical images.

Satires often reinforced prejudice, whereas prejudice is very often the target of contemporary satire.

National stereotypes, familiar still today, were unashamedly part of eighteenth century satire. Inspired by politics, wars and rebellions there were satires of the French, Americans and Scots. Outsiders such as the country 'bumpkin' were a common site in satire and served to highlight the comedy of sophisticated urban life from the perspective of the 'rural innocent'.

A Jewish Clothes Trader and a Butcher, Robert Dighton, 18007, Watercolour and pencil    Gambles on the River Thames, George Cruikshank, 1814, Hand coloured etching    North East Bethnal Green, Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree KCIE MP, Sir Leslie Ward, 1897, Chromolithograph

Robert Dighton's watercolour above presents us with a typical stereotyped image of a London Jew. Jewish hawkers of second hand garments were a familiar sight during this period and the stack of hats was the most common depiction of London's Jewry.

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