Henry Sharpe's journal was begun in 1830, the last year of the reign of George IV, when Henry was twenty-seven and living with his sister Catharine in New Ormond Street. In ‘a spirit of youthful enthusiasm and resolution, a young man takes stock of himself and considers his prospects’. He had just started his own business in the City of London, H & D Sharpe, in partnership with his youngest brother Dan, as merchants trading with Portugal from their office at Pinners’ Hall, Broad Street. We are gradually introduced to his family and their circle of friends who reappear in the journal over the years. However, his initial enthusiasm for the journal petered out after a few months and it was not until 1840 that he returned to it, by then married with a growing family, living “over the shop” in a house in Broad Street Buildings. This time he maintained the journal until 1847.

The journal covers a period of only nine years, but the text is rich with observations about national and international events, the great political and social concerns of the time, and commentary on life in London. In the ten years between Henry's first entry in 1830 and his resumption in 1840 there had been momentous developments: parliamentary reform, the abolition of slavery, the destruction by fire of both the Palace of Westminster and the Royal Exchange, and of course Queen Victoria began her reign. The Brunels and the Stephensons were at the height of their powers, providing the machinery that continued to power the Industrial Revolution; the new railways, steamboats, waterworks, gasworks, and the Thames Tunnel, provide the backdrop to Henry's world in the 1840s.