1810 Berners Street prank

The Berners Street Hoax was a famous hoax perpetrated by Theodore Hook in London in 1810. Hook had bet his friend Samuel Beazley, an English-Italian, that he could transform any house in London into the most talked-about address in a week.

On November 27 at nine o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Tottenham, the occupant of 54 Berners Street, began receiving a large number of deliveries and visitors. Various trades people arrived claiming that they had been summoned to her house by letter. Dignitaries, including the Governor of the Bank of England, the Duke of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor of the City of London also arrived. So many people crowded into the narrow street that fights broke out.

Hook had sent out four thousand letters purporting to be Mrs. Tottenham and requesting deliveries, visitors and assistance. He was soon revealed as the instigator of the prank.

External links and references

* [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Berners_Street_Hoax/ Museum of Hoaxes article on the Berners Street Hoax]
* [http://www.theodorehook.net/hoax.html Theodore Edward Hook, Hoax of 1810]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,,1989299,00.html "London in the Nineteenth Century", The Guardian Newspaper (London)]