Berners Street hoax
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The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by the writer Theodore Hook in Westminster in 1810. After several weeks of preparation he made an apparently spontaneous bet with a friend that he could transfo
A caricature of the hoax by William Heath
c. 1810 portrait of Theodore Hook, the hoax's perpetrator
Illustration of the hoax
Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, was a British prince and field marshal, the nephew and son-in-law of King George III. He was the only son of Prince William Henry, Duke of G
Berners Street hoax
…1810. Several well-known people were also invited to call on the address, including the chairmen of the Bank of England and the East India Company, the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London. Hook and his friends rented rooms in the house opposite number 54 to view proceedings. Chimney sweeps began arriving at…
The Duke of Gloucester, c. late 1810s
The Duke of Gloucester in an engraving based on a portrait painted by Sir William Beechey, published 1826
Prince William was a regular guest at Earlham Hall, seat of the Gurney family who, like William, were abolitionists and Whigs