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[Creeperopolis]

The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by the writer Theodore Hook in London in 1810. After several weeks of preparation he made an apparently spontaneous bet with a friend that he could transform any property into the most talked-about address in London. Hook spent six weeks sending between a thousand and four thousand letters to tradespeople and businesses ordering deliveries of their goods and services to 54 Berners Street, London, at various times on 27 November 1810. Several well-known people were also invited to call on the address, including the chairmen of the Bank of England and the East India Company, the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London.

Hook and his friends rented rooms in the house opposite number 54 to view proceedings. Chimney sweeps began arriving at the address at 5:00 am on the day, followed by hundreds of representatives of several trades and businesses, including auctioneers, undertakers, grocers, butchers, bakers, pastry chefs and dancing masters; goods deliveries included organs, furniture, coal, wedding cakes, food, drink and a coffin. The police were called to try and manage the crowd but they were not able to clear the street until after the final influx of visitors at 5:00 pm: domestic servants who thought they were to be interviewed for a job.

Hook was unidentified at the time, but admitted his involvement in a semi-autobiographical novel published twenty-five years after the event. The hoax was repeated across Britain and Paris, and was retold on stage, in song and by cartoonists.