The London Journal; and Weekly Record of Literature, Science and Art (published from 1845 to 1928) was a British penny fiction

Penny Dreadful

A penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...

 weekly, one of the best-selling magazines of the nineteenth century.

The magazine was established by George Stiff

George Stiff

George Stiff was an English engraver and newspaper proprietor.Stiff worked as foreman of the engravers in the Illustrated London News before becoming a newspaper proprietor himself in the 1840s. A paper called The Illustrated Weekly Times failed after a few weeks, but The London Journal was a...

, published by George Vickers

George Vickers

George Vickers , a Democrat, was a United States Senator from Maryland, serving from 1868-1873. He also served in the Maryland State Senate....

 and initially written and edited by George W. M. Reynolds

George W. M. Reynolds

George William MacArthur Reynolds was a British author and journalist.He was born in Sandwich, Kent, the son of Captain Sir George Reynolds, a flag officer in the Royal Navy. Reynolds was educated first at Dr. Nance's school in Ashford, Kent, and then passed on to the Royal Military College,...

. After Reynolds left to found his own Reynolds's Miscellany in 1846, John Wilson Ross became editor.

In the mid-1850s the circulation was over 500,000.

In 1857 Herbert Ingram

Herbert Ingram

Herbert Ingram was considered the father of pictorial journalism through his founding of The Illustrated London News. He was a Liberal politician who favoured social reform and represented Boston for four years until his early death in a shipping accident.-Early life:Ingram was born at Paddock...

, in secret partnership with Punch

Punch (magazine)

Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...

's owners Bradbury and Evans

Bradbury and Evans

Bradbury and Evans was an English printer and publisher founded by William Bradbury and Frederick Mullet Evans. For the first ten years they were printers, then added publishing in 1841 after they purchased Punch magazine. As printers they did work for Edward Moxon and Chapman and Hall...

, bought the newspaper, and Punch 's editor Mark Lemon

Mark Lemon

Mark Lemon was founding editor of both Punch and The Field.-Biography:Lemon was born in London on the 30 November 1809. He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, London...

 was placed in editorial charge. Lemon's attempt to rebrand the newspaper, serializing novels by Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

, was a commercial failure. In 1859 Stiff bought the paper back (combining it with a title The Guide which he had started in the interim). Stiff installed Percy B. St. John and then Pierce Egan

Pierce Egan the Younger

Pierce Egan the Younger was an English journalist and novelist. The son of Pierce Egan, the author of Life in London. he associated with his father in several of his works.-Early life:...

 as editor. After Stiff's bankruptcy in 1862 W. S. Johnson became proprietor.

By 1883 it had transformed itself from being a “penny family weekly” into what was recognizably a “woman’s magazine”.

Contributors

Contributors to the magazine included leading authors of the day, such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret.-Life:...

 (Lady Audley's Secret

Lady Audley's Secret

Lady Audley's Secret is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon published in 1862. It was Braddon's most successful and well known novel. Critic John Sutherland described the work as "the most sensationally successful of all the sensation novels." The plot centers on "accidental bigamy" which...

and The Outcast; E. D. E. N. Southworth

E. D. E. N. Southworth

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth was an American writer of more than 60 novels in the latter part of the 19th century. She was probably the most widely read author of that era.-Life and career:...

 (The Gypsy’s Prophecy); Pierce Egan

Pierce Egan

Pierce Egan was an early British journalist, sportswriter, and writer on popular culture.Egan was born in the London suburbs, where he spent his life. By 1812 he had established himself as the country's leading 'reporter of sporting events', which at the time meant mainly prize-fights and...

(The Poor Girl).

George Frederick Sargent,artist on wood,contributed to engravings in the London Journal.