Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Categories: Europe | History | Photo project

Between 1873 and 1877, Scottish photographer John Thomson, along with journalist Adolph Smith, documented the lives of London's urban poor.

The results of their work under the title "Street Life of London" were released every month in parts, and later came out in one volume. Documentaries of street vendors, beggars and other inhabitants of the streets were combined with interviews, essays and reports that showed poverty as a sociological problem that needs to be studied and methods to combat it.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

This project became one of the first examples of documentary photography on a social theme and set the tone for such photographers and fighters against social inequality and injustice of the next century as Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Vegetable saleswoman.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A street procession in honor of Guy Fawkes Night.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Street vendors and a shoe cleaner.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A man is waiting for bored passers-by to offer them a ride on a donkey.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Street photographer.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A street vendor of oysters.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A seller of expensive jewelry for such streets.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

An Italian harpist entertains local children.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Water carrier.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Canteen for former prisoners. The owner of the canteen (left) is talking to local Indian drummer Ramo Sammi.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A seller of cheap ice cream.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A caravan of gypsies in a parking lot near Notting Hill.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Used furniture store.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Flower girls at Covent Garden Market.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

The poster man puts up an advertisement about an exhibition at Madame Tussauds.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A traveling craftsman and ginger beer producers.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Bootblack at work.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

People in front of a junk shop in the Lambeth area, where the annual flooding due to the River Thames gives the locals a lot of trouble.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Friends are enjoying a beer.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A woman begging for alms was paid to take care of a child.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Recruiting sergeants in the British Army at the entrance to the pub.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A local merchant sells herring.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

A bus driver known as Cast Iron Billy.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Signboard artist at work in the studio.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

City sanitizers clean the street after a smallpox outbreak.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

The chimney sweep and his assistant.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Two-wheeled taxi.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Master of locks.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Advertising in 1877.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Workers on the barge.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

Porters with baskets of plants.

Impenetrable poverty on the streets of London in 1873-1877

The seller of cough medicines.

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