Posters in Punch

Horrible London; or the Pandemonium of Posters

13 October 1888

Punch, p. 170.

In the accompanying poem, the demon proclaims his mission as 'the Pandemonium's Poster,' plastering lurid images of 'mural monstrosities, reeking of crime' on every available space.

[Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Visualizing Horror: Illustrations of Jack the Ripper and his Victims

Victorian & Edwardian Advertisements

Scanned image by Simon Cooke, who also added the commentary (see below).

[You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or to the Victorian Web in a print document.]

Here, the excesses of vulgar advertising are linked to the murders in Whitechapel by showing a demonic figure pasting up posters promoting a Penny Dreadful and a melodramatic play. One shows a woman who has been stabbed by a knife, a direct allusion to the Ripper, and the bill-poster is about to stick up another with part of the word ‘Murder’ as its headline. The implication of the whole is clear: murder is just another selling point, and the killings just another product to be sold and consumed in the pages of the papers. The Ripper story, Punch reflects, has been commodified, converted into a sensational scandal that appealed to the debased taste of the public and made considerable money for those who controlled the media. Like many a crime in our own modern age, the Ripper narrative was exploited for gain and inflected with capitalist greed.

Bibliography

"Horrible London...." Punch. 13 October 1888: 170. Internet Archive. Web. 29 May 2025.

Created 29 May 2025