Music Feature - Paying the Piper: The Coal-Man and the Hosier

John Florance investigates two unsung heroes of British cultural history: the hosiery manufacturer William Gardiner, who introduced the unknown Beethoven to England, and the coal merchant Thomas Britton, whose musical gatherings above his coal store in Clerkenwell attracted some of the greatest musicians of the late 17th and early 18th century and an audience that bridged the social divide.