Charles Booth’s 19th century London maps and poverty notebooks
When: 8 May 2025 - 10.00 am – 11.30 amWhere: OnlineLimit: 25 |
Charles Booth’s 19th century London maps and poverty notebooksPresenter: Dr Penny Walters
Old maps are a rich and fascinating family history resource. British businessman Charles Booth became concerned with the plight of the Victorian London urban poor. In 1886, he began an ambitious project to survey their living and working conditions, which took 17 years to complete. His survey involved questionnaires, interviews, and he and his small team physically walking around surveying what they saw. The survey focused on 3 areas: poverty, industry, and religion. It is a pioneering example of social cartography, as each street was coloured to indicate the income and observers’ assumption of social class of its inhabitants. Seven classes identified ranged from the “Lowest class - vicious, semi-criminal’ through to “Poor - a moderate family” to “Upper-middle and upper classes - wealthy.” The London School of Economics website features Booth’s maps, which are searchable by street, parish and area, and can be compared with modern maps of London. Whilst walking around each street, the investigators also compiled very detailed notebooks of observations. Some of the notebooks have been digitised and are grouped into three: police notebooks, inmates of workhouses; and Jewish notebooks. The notebooks include: reports, interviews, letters, statistics, rules. Other useful resources for this period and location will be given. The maps and notebooks can then be combined with census information to provide a more detailed picture of life at that time. This session will be invaluable for those searching for London ancestors during the 1880s - 1900s.
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