Queer street is a colloquial term referring to a person being in some difficulty, most commonly financial. It is often associated with Carey Street , where London 's bankruptcy courts were once located.
31-643: The term appears in 1811 in the Lexicon Balatronicum: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence , an updated version of Francis Grose 's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue . It is defined therein as: Although often being associated with the Carey Street bankruptcy courts, which also lends its name to a similar phrase, the term Queer Street appears to predate the courts' move to Carey Street from Westminster in
62-630: A Christmas special in Jamaica, on a Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle driven by Paterson. It sported the registration N88 TFL (the British bingo call for number 88 is "Two Fat Ladies", initialised in the suffix "TFL" of the registration) and had a Watsonian Jubilee GP-700 "doublewide" sidecar where Dickson Wright rode. They travelled to various destinations, such as an army garrison and an all-girls school, where they prepared large meals, often with unusual ingredients. Paterson's uncle, Anthony Bartlett,
93-561: A Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions (1787). Grose was born at his father's house in Broad Street, St-Peter-le-Poer , London. His parents were Swiss immigrant and jeweller Francis Jacob Grose (d. 1769), and his wife, Anne (d. 1773), daughter of Thomas Bennett of Greenford in Middlesex . Grose was baptised on 11 June 1731 in the parish of St Peter-le-Poer. The eldest of seven children, Grose probably received
124-617: A Dr. Edward Ledwich , who had already published a book on Irish antiquities, completed the final volume of Grose's Antiquities of Ireland in 1791. In addition to the books above mentioned, Grose wrote a Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons . Additionally, it is noted that he was the (anonymous) author of Advice to the Officers of the British Army: With the addition of some Hints to the Drummer and Private Soldier , which
155-612: A chapter in Our Mutual Friend (1864) called "Lodgers in Queer Street" about a corrupt moneylender plotting to bankrupt his "friends" because they outshine him socially. In Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson , chapter 1, Mr Enfield says: "No, sir. I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask." In The Great God Pan (1894) by Arthur Machen ; Villiers speaking to Austin about his attempt to uncover
186-557: A claim to be considered as the first critical "aesthetic regionalist theorist" in proclaiming the anti-universality of aesthetics. While on an expedition to Ireland to collect antiquarian material, Grose died in Dublin at the house of Horace Hone , of an apoplectic stroke . His father had built a house, known as Richmond, in Drumcondra before his death. He was buried on 18 May 1791, at Drumcondra cemetery. His nephew Daniel and
217-686: A classical education but first aimed at a career in the Army . In 1747, he was in Flanders, apparently as a volunteer in Howard's (later 19th) regiment of foot : later he received a commission as cornet in Cobham's (later 10th) regiment of dragoons . Posted to Kent on excise duties in 1750, he met and married Catherine Jordan of Canterbury . They were eventually to have ten children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Their eldest son, also called Francis Grose ,
248-550: A constable, "It's lucky for you, my man, that nothing is missing, or you would find yourself in Queer Street." In the Sherlock Holmes story " The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place " and corresponding Granada television series episode, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes , episode 3, "Shoscombe Old Place", Watson observes that a character in debt is "by all accounts, so far down Queer Street, he may never find his way back again." In Robert Falcon Scott 's (1912) diary account of
279-458: A friendship with the poet Robert Burns . Burns met him while he was staying with Robert Riddell at the Friar's Carse , collecting material for his Scottish work. Burns suggested to him that he should include Alloway Kirk in his Scottish Antiquities , and Grose agreed on condition that Burns provided a witch tale to go with his drawing. In June 1790, Burns sent Grose a prose tale with a variant in
310-525: A letter to Grose, following it up with a rhymed version, " Tam o' Shanter ". Grose was the first art critic to affirm, in his "Rules for drawing caricaturas: with an essay on comic painting" (1788), published in William Hogarth 's The Analysis of Beauty (1791 edition), that aesthetic emotions emerge from a specific "cultural" environment, and that aesthetics are neither innate nor universal, but formed by their cultural context. Grose therefore has
341-590: A particularly gifted draughtsman but he mixed in the London artistic milieu and began to exhibit, first at the Society of Artists in 1767–8 and then at the Royal Academy . His interest was in the field of medieval remains, which were beginning to exercise an increasing grip on the public imagination. In 1772, he published the first part of The Antiquities of England and Wales , a work which he unashamedly aimed at
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#1732787081209372-835: The BBC . Since then, the show has been repeated frequently on the Food Network and Cooking Channel in the US and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . In the UK, the show has been transmitted many times on the satellite channel Good Food . The show centred on Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright travelling the United Kingdom for most of the episodes, except for one episode in Ireland and
403-605: The militia , which meant he could avoid distant postings. He was commissioned into the Surrey Militia as lieutenant and adjutant , and it was his subsequent promotion to captain in 1765 that led to his adoption of the familiar title "Captain Grose". The Surrey militia was disembodied in 1762 but this hardly affected Grose, who continued to receive a salary as paymaster and adjutant even in peacetime. With bequests from his parents and from his wife, who died in 1774, added to
434-517: The 1840s. The folk etymology associating Queer Street and Carey Street has persisted and led to a number of explanations for its supposed origins: that 'queer' may be a corruption of 'Carey' or that it is a transmutation of the German language term Querstrasse (street running off at a right angle), the latter origin being akin to that of the idiom " orthogonal to" in the sense of "conceptually or logically incompatible with." Charles Dickens wrote
465-417: The British cooking show Two Fat Ladies , during the episode "Barristers at Lincoln's Inn" (1998) in season three, Clarissa Dickson Wright tells her sidekick, and driver, Jennifer Paterson during a motorcycle with sidecar jaunt through London, "Turn into Queer Street Jennifer." To which Jennifer replies, "They probably call it Gay Street now." Clarissa corrects her, "No, not that sort of queer. It's because
496-791: The Clouds (1935) by Agatha Christie , a businessman named James Ryder, one of the suspects in the murder of Madame Giselle, remarks that, "It's odd how small a sum will sometimes put a man in Queer Street." Christie had previously used the term in her novel Peril at End House (1932) and in Murder in Three Acts (1934), her preferred title for Three-Act Tragedy , the title used for the novel's original U.S. publication. In '' Brideshead Revisited (1945) Edward Ryder, commenting on his son Charles' difficult financial situation, remarks dryly, "Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stoney broke? On
527-495: The Genii , were formerly erroneously attributed to Francis Grose. A list of works ordered by original year of the publication of the first volume: Others: Two Fat Ladies Two Fat Ladies is a British cooking programme starring Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright . It originally ran for four series – twenty-four episodes – from 9 October 1996 to 28 September 1999, being produced by Optomen Television for
558-447: The bankruptcy courts are here." Queer Street may also refer to the moment when a boxer or similar combatant is dazed from getting struck on the head but remains standing. Francis Grose Francis Grose (before 11 June 1731 – 12 May 1791) was an English antiquary , draughtsman , and lexicographer . He produced A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) and A Provincial Glossary, with
589-613: The country to visit and draw sites for inclusion in The Antiquities . The fourth and last volume came out in June 1776, and Grose almost immediately began work on a supplement. His publishing career was interrupted however, when the Surrey militia was again called into service between 1778 and 1783. This was not a happy experience for him. Where previously Grose had been able to spend his summers visiting and sketching ancient sites, he
620-489: The original identity of a "Mrs. Beaumont" stated: "If you see mud at the top of a stream, you may be sure that it was once at the bottom. I went to the bottom. I have always been fond of diving into Queer Street for my amusement, and I found my knowledge of that locality and its inhabitants very useful." In the Sherlock Holmes story " The Second Stain " (1904) by Arthur Conan Doyle , Inspector Lestrade chastises
651-492: The popular market. Essentially, it targeted those who wanted to know about antiquities but had neither time nor means to visit them in person, and contained small panoramas of medieval ruins, together with an informative text on a separate page. Sometimes the text was taken from books already published, or from information supplied by other antiquaries (both acknowledged); sometimes Grose collated material himself from which he could work up an article. From 1772 onwards, he also toured
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#1732787081209682-660: The return of the South Pole party, he notes - "We have only three days food with us and shall be in Queer Street if we miss the depot." In Women in Love (1921) by D. H. Lawrence , Gerald Crich's mother says to him "You mind yourself, or you'll find yourself in Queer Street, that's what will happen to you." In Whose Body? (1923) by Dorothy L. Sayers , Lord Peter Wimsey says to Inspector Charles Parker "Don't march in there blowing about murders and police warrants, or you may find yourself in Queer Street." In Death in
713-520: The rocks? In Queer Street?" - Your cousin Melchior was imprudent with his investments and got into a very queer street - worked his passage to Australia before the mast." In the 1990 television show Twin Peaks sheriff Truman chastises the pathologist Albert saying "normally if a stranger walked into my station talking this kind of crap, he'd be looking for his teeth two blocks up on Queer Street." In
744-400: The salary he drew as a militia captain, Grose at this time was able to live reasonably well despite the demands made on his purse by the need to raise, educate and provide for his children. Grose had early on shown a keen interest in drawing, having attempted sketches of medieval buildings as far back as 1749, and having taken formal instruction at a drawing school in the mid-1750s. He was not
775-574: The show, once introducing apple pan dowdy with a verse from the song " Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy " (erroneously attributing the song to The Andrews Sisters ). They revelled in cooking at grand locations, such as at Lennoxlove House near Edinburgh. "The Two Fat Ladies" produced four cookbooks which accompanied each of the four television series. In order: Two Fat Ladies: Gastronomic Adventures (with Motorbike and Sidecar) , The Two Fat Ladies Ride Again , The Two Fat Ladies: Full Throttle and Two Fat Ladies Obsessions . The Two Fat Ladies DVD set
806-471: The speech of the day which would not normally find inclusion in standard dictionaries, and contained, in all, about 9,000 terms which more scholarly works of the time habitually overlooked. He produced books on military antiquities and armour, as well as satirical essays, and in 1788 began the first of several tours of Scotland in order to produce The Antiquities of Scotland . It was on the second of these tours, in summer 1789, that he met and immediately formed
837-720: Was Gentiluomo to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster , and so one episode was videotaped at Westminster Cathedral and another at an Irish convent. While cooking at Westminster Cathedral, Paterson cooked an original dish, Peaches Cardinal Hume . Optomen Television's synopsis of the programme said, "The Ladies are cooks not chefs – they reject the pretensions and elaborations of haute cuisine and are aggressively unfashionable, delighting in such ingredients as clotted cream, lard and fatty meats." Paterson and Dickson Wright sang their own theme song written by composer Pete Baikie, and Paterson often burst into song during
868-415: Was now obliged to attend his regiment in various training camps. He did not get on well with his new commanding officer, and he handled regimental finances in a slipshod manner. The result was that he incurred debts towards fellow officers that would take years to straighten out. The financial pressure forced him to increase both the rate and the range of his publications. The Supplement to The Antiquities
899-554: Was published in 1783 as a mocking look backwards on the conduct of the war against the American Colonies. Every instance of corruption, disregard and vice are suggested for every rank of the army. Tongue in cheek, but obviously rooted in truth, it is a great companion to Vulgar Tongue . It also contains a satirical portrait of Jeremiah Hodges, Grose's erstwhile commanding officer in the Surrey militia. Two parodies by Thomas Bridges , A Travestie of Homer and The Battle of
930-434: Was resumed in 1783, this time with a higher proportion of the illustrations being done by other artists. Drawing on his own fieldwork, Grose also branched out into producing dictionaries , including the famous A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) and A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions (1787). Though intended to amuse, they give an unusually vivid picture of
961-688: Was the Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales , Australia from 1792 to 1794. Grose left the army in October 1751, possibly to avoid his regiment's posting to Scotland. In 1755, his father bought him the post of Richmond Herald but Francis showed little interest in heraldry and was to sell it again in February 1763. In 1757, Grose was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries , and 1759 he resumed his soldiering career, this time in