Trained as a lawyer, Liza was self-taught as a historian. Cruelty and hypocrisy flourish alongside invention, industry and philanthropy. But this was also, at least until the 1850s, a city of cholera outbreaks, transportation to Australia, public executions and the workhouse, where street-sellers sold sparrows for a penny, tied by the leg for children to play with. In Victorian London (2005), Liza noted the many practical innovations – flushing lavatories, underground railways, umbrellas, letter-boxes, driving on the left.
Elizabeth’s London (2003) showed us a city ruled by the livery companies and their apprentice system, with foreigners closely watched. The road rage, press releases, takeaways and Dr Marten’s “chymical drops”, the Viagra of the time, that she described were reminders of today. In the world of Dr Johnson’s London (2000), private madhouses were a profitable line and false teeth could be ordered by post chalk was used to thicken milk and lead to blacken tea. Liza Picard trained as a lawyer, working for the Inland Revenue for almost two decades, and as a historian was self-taught, her first book being published when she was 70 The Sunday Telegraph described her account of “how our 17th-century ancestors ate, slept, travelled, worshipped, loved, clothed themselves, tried to keep healthy” as “a marvellous source-book for historical novelists and film-makers out for authenticity, and a near-perfect bedside book for anyone else”. Reviewers decided that she had succeeded. The practical details are rarely covered in social history books … The only answer appeared to be to write a book myself.” I have always been interested in how people lived. Her books began as a retirement hobby – she was 70 when the first was published – and Liza made her inspiration clear: “I have a practical mind. The success of the first, Restoration London (1997), stimulated a mini-boom of history books on everyday life in the capital. Liza Picard, who has died aged 94, wrote a series of books on London’s social history.
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