Soho at Noon: Satire, Stratification, and Urbanisation in William Hogarth’s London

Daisy Mansfield is a volunteer with Victoria County History (VCH) London, focusing on artists in Soho. In this blog, she discusses what we can learn about Soho in the eighteenth century from the work of the renowned artist and chronicler of London life, William Hogarth.

The recently re-launched Victoria County History (VCH) London is currently working on a short book about Soho and exploring other collaborative projects in the area. You can learn more about this work or donate here.

In eighteenth-century London, Soho crackled with creativity, where the grit and glamour of city life became art. From the bustling streets of Soho to the neighbouring squares of Leicester Fields, William Hogarth (1697-1764) stood at the threshold of London’s cultural heart; close enough to witness its energy firsthand and transform it into an interplay of vision and commentary. Hogarth’s art reveals London as a city which sprawled, its clamour and chaos laid bare. Embedded within this spectacle is a compelling critique of authority and societal structures, offering a nuanced reflection on contemporary global urbanisation.

Hogarth employed his artistry to chronicle London’s public life through incisive visual satire. His series The Four Times of Day—originally four oil paintings completed and later issued as engraved prints (1736-1738)—captures Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night in distinct London locations.[1] Considered a play on the artistic allegorical theme of ‘points du jour’,[2] each scene offers a vividly staged insight into the socio-political currents of early eighteenth-century London. Amid a rapidly expanding metropolis, crowded by successive waves of immigrants, Hogarth’s work is a record of street life from the period.

Although he also produced formal portraiture, Hogarth distinguished himself by adopting a rigorously observational method to generate satirical imagery.[3] Recorded by the Society of Artists of Great Britain in 1762 simply as a “Painter”, Hogarth forged a dual career as both painter and engraver.[4] His successful advocacy for the Engraving Copyright Act of 1734 further solidified his influence on the artistic and commercial structures of his day.[5]

This analysis concentrates on Noon (1738), executed both as an oil painting and engraved prints, whose central steeple of St Giles in the Fields unmistakably locates the scene in Soho, London. Once a fashionable residential quarter in the early 1690s, by 1741 the marked decline in titled ratepayers across the parish attested to the area’s diminishing desirability.[6] The church steeple features again in Hogarth’s later works, including Gin Lane (1751), Beer Street (1751), and The First Stage of Cruelty (1751), underscoring his sustained interest in the moral and physical decay of this urban environment.[7]

Noon’s composition foregrounds a stark social dichotomy, further underscored by the cobbled pavement’s literal division. On one side, a well-dressed French Huguenot family, likely prosperous tradespeople as indicated by their lavish attire,[8] emerges from the chapel; on the other side, a disorderly crowd indulges in lewd behaviour. Their almost theatrical costumes, exaggerated physiognomies, and emphatic gestures underscore the division between immigrant artisans and Soho’s unruly lower classes that lived side-by-side.[9]

Although the imagery borders on caricature, here the figures serve as actors in a satirical tableau; each contributing to a pointed social commentary.[10] This narrative extends to two children: one, rotund and attired as a miniature French gentleman; the other, unattended and weeping over a ruined meal. This image echoes a 1685 Privy Council register describing how competition from “French felt makers” so weakened London’s textile trade that “Petitioners… [received] very little work, and with their familys are ready to starve”.[11]

Hogarth’s portrayal of the weeping boy in Noon has been compared to the vulnerable child figure in Nicolas Poussin’s (1594-1665) painting The Abduction of the Sabine Women (c. 1633-34).[12] Poussin’s French classical work depicts the violent episode in which Romans lured their Sabine neighbours to a festival in order to seize the women as their wives.[13] In Noon, the crying boy shares the curly hair, button nose and rounded cheeks with the child crying in the foreground of The Abduction of the Sabine Women, implying a similar sense of helplessness. Overall, the contrast between the two children in Noon anticipates emerging social stratifications, while the moment in which a maid shields her pie from an intrusive hand introduces a flash of kinetic humour, heightening the scene’s dynamic tension.

Noon’s engraved print mesmerises with its sly play on time. In the painted original, the viewer’s gaze glides from left to right, first discovering the poised French Huguenot family, then crashing into the street’s unruly hustle. The print, however, dares to reverse that journey. At its heart stands an enigmatic clocktower, with a clockface of four hands teasing endless interpretations and deepening the chasm between these two worlds. Although some records note harmony within Soho’s community,[14] Noon draws a stark contrast between the finely detailed French Huguenot family and the roughly sketched crowd.[15] This juxtaposition underscores the period’s rigid class hierarchy and the marginalisation of the poor.

Light itself becomes narrative. Illuminated churchgoers draw the eye, then yield attention to the shadowed corners where an urchin scraps food from the pavement, and a dead cat sprawls near a cluster of Londoners, huddled in the gloom. The marked absence of thriving nature, compounded by an urban canopy of brick usurping the sky, reinforces the tangible darkness cloaking these streets. The deep etchings required to render these darker recesses metaphorically reflect the harsher living conditions they represent, while the brighter foreground highlights the comedic spectacle Hogarth invites the viewer to relish.[16]

Within the wider framework of The Four Times of Day, Noon stands as a testament to the cosmopolitan excesses and social tensions of eighteenth-century London. Through wit and critical observation, Hogarth’s work transcends its era to become both an artistic triumph and historical record.

Daisy Mansfield holds a Master of Arts in International Heritage Management from the University of Birmingham and is an Affiliate Member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Having drawn extensively from the VCH during her postgraduate research, she welcomed the opportunity to contribute to its mission by volunteering for VCH London, taking notes on vestry minutes and writing about artists in Soho, once important contributors to its economic, cultural, and social life. Here, she focusses on what we can learn about the area in the eighteenth-century from the work of the renowned artist and chronicler of London life, William Hogarth.

[1] S. Felton, An Explanation of several of Mr. Hogarth’s Prints (1785), 27-33. (https://tinyurl.com/26xzsa4u)

R. Paulson, Hogarth’s Graphic Works: third edition (1989), 187-211. (Paulson 1989 / Hogarth’s Graphic Works: third edition | British Museum)

[2] S. Shesgreen, Hogarth and the Times-of-the-day Tradition (1983), 21. (https://tinyurl.com/vh2r4f5n)

[3] J. B. Nicols. Anecdotes of William Hogarth (1833), 122-124. (https://tinyurl.com/2t9vmvda)

There is also evidence from the following portraits:

Miss Mary Edwards – Works – eMuseum

William Hogarth (1697-1764), Portrait of a Gentleman, possibly Edward Cope Hopton (1707-1754), half-length, in a blue coat and red waistcoat trimmed with gold, feigned oval | Christie’s

Philanthropist, ‘Captain Thomas Coram’ (1740, Coram family, in the care of the Foundling Museum, London)

‘The Graham Children’ (1742, National Gallery, London)

[4] Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain, papers | Archives | RA Collection | Royal Academy of Arts

M. Hargraves, ‘Candidates for Fame’: The Society of Artists of Great Britain, 1760-1791 (2005), 179.

F. G. Stephens, M. D. George, Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum: Division I. Political and personal satires. 11 vols., London, 19870, cat. no. 3147. (https://tinyurl.com/35buypz4)

[5] Public Act, 8 Geo. II, c.13 (Public Act, 8 George II, c. 13).

[6] ‘General Introduction’, in Survey of London: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho, ed. F H W Sheppard (London, 1966), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp1-19 [accessed 9 November 2025]. (General Introduction | British History Online)

[7] J. Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, Volume II (1720), 76-77. “All thefe Streets and Places are very meanly built, and as ordinarily inhabited, the greateft Part by French, and of the poorer Sort”. (https://tinyurl.com/2k5ke9vc).

[8] R. D. Gwynn, Huguenot Heritage: The History and Contribution of the Huguenots in Britain (Second Revised Edition) (2000).

[9] J. Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, Volume II(1720), 76.

[10] J. B. Nicols, Anecdotes of William Hogarth (1833), 89 and 126. (Anecdotes of William Hogarth : Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive)

[11] Privy Council: Registers. James II. Vol 1: 18 December 1685. Catalogue Ref: PC 2/71. f.91v10:13 AM. (Huguenot migrants in England – Source 4a – The National Archives)

[12] J. Nichols, Biographical anecdotes of William Hogarth; with a catalogue of his works chronologically arranged; and occasional remarks (1785), 250. (https://tinyurl.com/5n8ytyaa)

[13] J. Boyer, I. Volf, Inventaire de la collection de tableaux de Charles I de Créquy. May 10, 1638, no. CXXX (1988), 505.

[14] E. Lipson The Economic History of England: The Age of Mercantilism, Volume III(1934), 57-61.

[15] J. Nichols, G. Steevens, T. Phillips, The Genuine Works of William Hogarth: Illustrated with Biographical Anecdotes, a Chronological Catalogue, and Commentary, Volume III (1817), 237.

[16] J. B. Nicols, Anecdotes of William Hogarth (1833), 126.

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