John Hatchard John Hatchard John Hatchard (1769–1849) was an English publisher and bookseller, in Piccadilly, London. The Hatchards bookshop there is still in business. Hatchard had a trial at the works of the printer Thomas Bensley. He then served on apprenticeship, with John Ginger of College Street, Westminster. He later became an assistant to Thomas Payne of Mews Gate, and went into business on his own account at 173 Piccadilly, London. Starting there in 1797, he had the largest business in the retail book trade in London after four years. In 1801 Hatchard moved from 173 Piccadilly to No. 189–190; in 1820
Oldest profession (phrase) called “the oldest profession in the world", a profession which is carried on in Piccadilly, Regent street, and other parts of London with great energy every night … In the same year the "Pall Mall Gazette" reported a speech in which "Mrs. Ormiston Chant … implored us to stand shoulder to shoulder and destroy what Kipling has called 'the oldest profession in the world'". The phrase was frequently used as a euphemism when delicacy forbade direct reference to prostitution. Kipling was not the first to employ the phrase "the most ancient profession" in an opprobrious sense. The Irish poet Henry