In the beginning and the middle of the 19th century only few non-Orientals had ever entered an opium den. Yet, their existence in London's East End was common knowledge as Victorian sensationalist-press journalists went into opium dens looking for “sleaze, corruption and vicarious excitement or exotic danger”.

Descriptions of opium dens started in great extent from the 1860s onwards, repeatedly representing London’s East End as “a miniature Orient within the heart of the empire”. Opium dens were depicted as squalid, humble, poor, dilapidated and wretched places. Many articles focused on the exotic otherness of the opium den and its connection to the mysterious Orient - a topic which intrigued, attracted, entertained and fascinated many Victorian readers

The India-China opium trade was very important to the British economy. Britain had fought two wars in the mid 19th century known as the ‘Opium Wars’, ostensibly in support of free trade against Chinese restrictions but in reality because of the immense profits to be made in the trading of opium. Since the British captured Calcutta in 1756, the cultivation of poppies for opium had been actively encouraged by the British and the trade formed an important part of India’s (and the East India Company’s) economy.

Opium and other narcotic drugs played an important part in Victorian life. Shocking though it might be to us in the 21st century, in Victorian times it was possible to walk into a chemist and buy, without prescription, laudanum, coke, and even arsenic. Opium preparations were sold freely in towns and country markets, indeed the consumption of opium was just as popular in the country as it was in urban areas.

Timetamps:
0:00 Opium Dens, Literary Accounts
0:35 Limehouse District, Early London Chinatowns
1:19 Britain & China Addicted to Each Other
2:18 French Satire From The Time
2:50 Britain Starts Pirating [1773]
3:22 1st Opium War [1839]
5:30 2nd Opium War [1856]
6:37 San Francisco Opium Dens
8:51 Public Burning Event

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