London Derelict Past Exposed in Photographs and Essays

The Old Clothes Of St. Gile, a photograph by John Thomson from ‘Street Life in London’, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith

BOOK NEWS: Today, London is one of the most beautiful cities in the world with major tourist attractions. But this was not always the case. Street Life in London, a new book by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith, goes back in time, revealing a derelict city with abject poverty.

BY KAZAD

Image: John Thomson, The Crawlers. From 'Street Life in London', 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith — John Thomson, *The Crawlers*. From *Street Life in London*, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith

LONDON, ENGLAND—Anyone who has been to London knows that it is a beautiful city. The capital of England and the United Kingdom, London is beautiful and has amazing attractions. From Trafalgar Square to Westminster Abby, the Zoo, and museums, there are so many attractions to see. One of London’s major attractions is The British Museum.

The British Museum

One of the top sites in London today is The British Museum. It public institution and was established in 1753. It focuses on human history, art, and culture. The museum has more than eight million works in its permanent collection. This is perhaps the most comprehensive collection dating back to the British Empire. Some of the famous works in the museum’s collection include the Rosetta Stone, Edvard Munch’s Self-portrait with Skeleton Arm, Edgar Degas’s Dancers Practicing at the Barre, and Rembrandt van Rijn’s Self-portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill. The museum also has a large collection of Benin bronzes looted by the British colonialists that invaded the Kingdom of Benin.

Tate Museum

There is also Tate Museum. The museum houses a large collection of United Kingdom’s International modern and contemporary art. Tate Museum is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world. It is housed in the former Bankside Power Station in the London Borough of Southwark’s Bankside district. The museum is a part of the Tate group, including Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives. Tate Museum holds blockbuster exhibitions that attract art lovers from across the globe. It is third on the list of the most-visited museums in the world in 2020.

Extremely Poor People in Dirty Old London

Although London is one of the most beautiful cities in the world today, that was not always the case. The city has changed beyond recognition over time. In the 19th century, London was derelict and full of extremely poor people, who suffered every day to earn a living.

The urban poverty, odious social conditions, and the derelict state of London in the 1800s are detailed in a book published in 1876-7. Titled Street Life in London, the book consists of articles by the radical socialist journalist Adolphe Smith and photographs by John Thomson. Before joining Smith on this revealing project, Thomas, a talented and influential photographer had traveled across the Far East for ten years taking photographs.

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For their book project, Smith and Thomson investigated the lives of London’s urban poor. Thomas’s unposed documentary images bring to focus the lives of men and women who struggle to eke out a living on the streets of London in dingy environments. These people existed in the periphery and earned a marginal existence working on the streets of London. They were flower-sellers, chimney-sweeps, shoe-blacks, chair-corners, musicians, dustmen, and locksmiths.

London in Black and White

Thomas’s black and white images are very direct and thought-provoking. Many of the people captured looked disheveled and dejected. Poverty is glaringly etched on their being. One image titled Crawlers captures a mother and a child sitting in front of a brick house. Beside her are two cups. Pain, grief, and extreme poverty are deeply etched in the woman’s face. With her head resting on the wall, she communicates the pain within.

Smith explains the tragedy that had befallen this woman. After years of a family tragedy, misfortune, and family conflicts, the women left home to live on the street of London. She never regained her path in life again. Smith writes:

She had been living with her son-in-law, a marble stone-polisher by trade, who is now in difficulties through ill-health. It appears, however, that, at best, “he never cared much for his work,” and innumerable quarrels ensued between him, his wife, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law, a youth of fifteen. At last, after many years of wrangling, the mother, finding that her presence aggravated her daughter’s troubles, left this uncomfortable home, and with her young son descended penniless into the street.

Another image captures a boy shining the shoe of a gentleman. The man seemed impressed by the boy’s diligence and devotion to his job. Known as Shoe-Black, those engaged in this profession were under constant harassment from police. Tradesmen who came out of their shops and spoke in favor of the shoe-black were their saviors. Smith writes of the tradesmen:

Street Workers: Poverty and Social Consequences in Old London

[T]hey objected that the shoe-black had been standing outside their doors for many years, was well known to the neighbourhood, had proved himself useful in running errands, or lent his aid to put up the shutters in the evening, and that, consequently, the policeman would oblige them by leaving him alone.”

Thomson’s insightful photographs are complemented by Adolphe Smith’s thought-provoking interviews, essays, and reportage. They examine poverty as a sociological problem that must be examined and eradicated.

Street Life in London is one of the first projects to provide the necessary insights into the social implications of poverty in the 19^th century. The project also paved the path for other documentary photographers to follow as they address social issues through documentary photography. Photographers like Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine are some photographers following in Thomas’s socially-concerned documentary photography style.

Smith and Thomson were not the first people to address the issue of street life and poverty of their era. In the second half of the 19th century, there was great interest in urban poverty and the social consequences of adversities. The authenticity of the photographs “taken from life” by Thomson and the very poignant essay by Smith, however, gave the project credence over others. Street Life in London project volumes was first published in monthly parts as Street Life in London. The book was not just a study on the social implication of poverty, but also a great example of social and documentary photography.