With gin selling at a penny a glass, carousing was full-on in areas outsiders called rookeries<\/em><\/em>, thieves\u2019 kitchens, the Holy Land and, for Drury Lane\u2019s red-light zone, Little Sodom. A range of middle-class spies, social investigators, reporters and slum-tourists came to look and sometimes join in goings-on they found both appalling and titillating. John Gay portrayed Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild in the characters of Captain MacHeath and Mr Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera, <\/em><\/em>London’s favourite play throughout the 18th century. But Jack’s story ends at the Fatal Tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laura Agust\u00edn is an historian and writer interested to tell stories of ordinary folks, those not named in history books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n