Narrative

J. Pitts, 7 Dials

1. John Pitts (1765–1844) opened his first printing establishment at No. 14 Great St Andrew Street, Seven Dials, St Giles-in-the-Fields, London in 1802, where he printed ballads, chapbooks and other ephemera. Popular Romanticism contains nearly 50 ballad-sheets printed and sold by Pitts. Ballad-sheets are single sheets of paper with a ballad printed on one side – sometimes called a broadside or a broadside ballad – a cheap, ephemeral form of street literature meant to be sung.