Neo-Victorian Slumming in London's Gothicity: The Victorian Metropolis' Televisual Transformation into "The City of Dreadful Night"

Abstract

Through the prevalent neo-Victorian slumming trope, this chapter explores Victorian London's progressive Gothic transformation into a veritable "City of Dreadful Night", with special focus on the popular television series *Ripper Street* (2012-2016) and *Penny Dreadful* (2014-2016). This cultural re-imagining of the historical metropolis is linked to both the legacies of nineteenth-century Urban Gothic and philanthropic discourse, as well as audience predilections (then and now) for 'vicarious slumming' and literal slumming tourism