Sweeps, nomads, quacks and crawlers: (shortened - photos from 1870s London)

The Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 31/03/12 | Daily Mail

[PhilosopherStone1000]

In the frantic pace of modern life, it is often easy to forget what life was once like for those who built the world we now live in.

These fascinating black and white pictures taken by photographer John Thompson show the reality of existence in the 1800s when photography was in its infancy.

[PhilosopherStone1000]

Lot's of great photos (and contemporary commentary) of 1870's London at the site.

[AnAmericanMother]

These are contemporary with Mayhew's great book, London Labor and the London Poor, and I'm almost certain they illustrated one edition, because I've seen all of these before.

A macabre sidelight to the picture of the Roma in their caravan - the woman on the left was murdered a few weeks later.

[PhilosopherStone1000]

I love the little morality tales that go with each one!

[traderrob6]

The guy in the pic looks like a young Teddy Kennedy.

[randita]

photography ping

[AnAmericanMother]

I think the writer was trying to reassure his readers that these where what used to be called "the deserving poor" - people who had fallen on hard times through illness or circumstance, not layabouts or grifters.

It made a big difference then. Better for everyone if it still did.

[WorkingClassFilth]

He couldn’t be any relation - the sweep was a noted temperance advocate.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Curious as to why the Street Doctor walks with what appear to be three inch lift soles on his shoes.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

Seeing all those carts/wagons reminded me of something from my childhood. In 1950’s Lyons, Illinois there was a guy who pulled his cart around town sharpening knives, scissors, etc., on a foot operated grindstone.

[ClearCase_guy]

Only one foot, I think. I figured it was due to polio.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Probably right.

[aruanan]

Curious as to why the Street Doctor walks with what appear to be three inch lift soles on his shoes.

To keep all the horse crap from staining his trousers?

[riri]

I am addicted to the Daily Mail. Love it.

Anyhow, the comments by the Brits are maddening. I find them to be one of the most vile people the world over.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The guy in the pic looks like a young Teddy Kennedy.

If you read the article, he's a newly reformed alcohlic and a temperance advocate.

[paudio]

Was he British or Indian? At the time, even now, many Europeans loved exotic medicine...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Someone with better knowledge of the UK might answer.
I think this era was before the wide-scale Indian-Paki migration to Britain.

[Harold Shea]

Rough living back...the horses looked malnourshed

The children working on the street...bet the smell

of the city would knock a person of today backwards

[pricilla]

Correct,widescale Paki immigration got into full swing in the early 60’s and continued thus for 20 years..

[pricilla]

Anyhow, the comments by the Brits are maddening. I find them to be one of the most vile people the world over.

What a curious comment,you really ought to have yourself evaluated...

[Oatka]

Rough living back...the horses looked malnourshed
The children working on the street...bet the smell
of the city would knock a person of today backwards

Walter A. Wyckoff walked/worked his way across America in 1891-93 as a Social Experiment to see if an unskilled laborer could make it. (Unskilled wages then were 12 1/2 cents per hour for a 10-hour day.) He wrote three books that became best sellers in the 1900s - "The Workers - East" "-West", and "A Day With A Tramp".

His worst time was December-May in 1892 Chicago. He mentioned how the horse manure was ground into a pasty slime and how the women had to raise their skirts "to keep from being befouled" as the stuff was tracked on to the sidewalks. The place must have reeked in the summertime, but he never mentioned it in any of his travels. Must have been so commonplace he was used to it.

He did mention walking in some area that just had boards for a sidewalk and the slime would ooze up between the cracks as he walked along. He ran across two very young girls sifting through a slop barrel outside a saloon and crying with joy when they found a "rancid piece of meat". The "Good Old Days" - weren't - for many working class people.

Now, if one doesn't have a cell phone, tablet and a flat screen, they are "underprivileged".