Born in 1771 to the tavern-keeper at the King’s Arms in Arundel Street, Francis Place worked hard and read widely. At 17 he became an independent journeyman breeches-maker, eventually setting himself up in Charing Cross. Despite living in poverty with his wife, a former servant, Place believed in education and self-improvement. He worked 14 hours daily after which he would spend hours reading the most radical authors of his time.

Also known as the ‘Radical Tailor of Charing Cross,’ Place was an atheist and political activist. Place saw the London Mechanics Institute as facilitating upward social mobility for working men. As he informed readers of The Republican in 1826, he was “saved” from “a life of misery” “by precisely such teaching as journeymen may receive in Mechanics’ Institutions”.