History of Gin Timeline

A 1639 manuscript, The Distiller of London, contains a juniper/orange peel/lemon peel/orris root recipe — the template for London Dry Gin. Historians Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller argue this predates Dutch genever's arrival in Britain by roughly fifty years, displacing an earlier English gin tradition.

Gin emerged in England in varying forms by the early 17th century, and at the time of the Stuart Restoration it enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity.

Image source: Stuart Restoration

Although gin's development had been taking place since the early 17th century, it became widespread after the 1688 Glorious Revolution led by William of Orange. After he took the British throne in 1689, taxes on domestically distilled spirits dropped and heavy duties hit imports like French brandy — a political move against France, not a quality judgment.

Image source: Glorious Revolution

A larger market for poor-quality barley unfit for brewing beer emerged, and between 1695 and 1735 thousands of gin shops sprang up throughout England. Gin emerged as the national alcoholic drink of England during the Gin Craze.

Image source: Gin Craze

Gin in the 18th century was produced in pot stills, and thus had a maltier profile than modern London gin, quite different from the neutral spirit used today.

Image source: Pot still

The 18th century gave rise to Old Tom gin, a softer, sweeter style of gin, often containing sugar, produced alongside the maltier pot-still gins of the era.

In London in the early 18th century, much gin was distilled legally in residential houses, with an estimated 1,500 residential stills in 1726, often flavoured with turpentine to generate resinous woody notes in addition to the juniper.

The Gin Act 1736 imposed high taxes on retailers and led to riots in the streets of England as drinkers resisted the prohibitive duty.

Image source: Gin Act 1736

The prohibitive duty introduced by the Gin Act 1736 was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742 after widespread resistance and rioting.

William Hogarth illustrated the contrasting reputations of beer and gin in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751), described by the BBC as 'arguably the most potent anti-drug poster ever conceived'.

Image source: Beer Street and Gin Lane

The Gin Act 1751 was more successful than earlier legislation: it forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.

The invention and development of the column still in 1826 and 1831 made the distillation of neutral spirits practical, thus enabling the creation of the London dry style that evolved later in the 19th century.

Image source: Column still

Enabled by the column still, the London dry style evolved during the latter half of the 19th century, becoming the drier, cleaner gin profile known worldwide today.

Old Tom gin, the softer, sweeter 18th-century style, faded in popularity by the early 20th century as drier styles like London dry dominated the market.

As late as 1913, Webster's Dictionary stated without further comment that 'common gin' is usually flavoured with turpentine, echoing a practice dating back to the early 18th century.

Image source: Webster's Dictionary

Under its legal definition, London gin may not contain added sweetening exceeding 0.1 g of sugars per litre of the final product, nor colourants, nor any added ingredients other than water.

Since 2013, gin has been in a period of ascendancy worldwide, with many new brands and producers entering the category, leading to strong growth, innovation and change across the industry.

In 2018, more than half the growth in the UK gin category was contributed by flavoured gin, highlighting shifting consumer tastes toward innovative new products.