London labour and the London poor

An extraordinary work of investigative journalism, literature, and sociology, London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of articles for a local newspaper and grew into a massive record of the daily life of Victorian London's underclass. By turns alarming, touching, and funny, the pages of London Labour and the London Poor exposed a previously hidden world. Henry Mayhew conducted hundreds of interviews that provided a first-hand account of costermongers and street-sellers, of sewer-scavengers and chimney-sweeps, creating an intimate and detailed portrait that offered unprecedented insight into their day-to-day struggle for survival. Combined with Mayhew's comprehensive data gathering, these stories have an immediacy that owes much to his sympathetic understanding and effective literary style. This new selection offers a cross-section of the original volumes and their evocative illustrations, including among other features an introduction by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst that illuminates Mayhew's life and career, the genesis and development of the book, and its influence on contemporaries such as Dickens and Kingsley. - Publisher.

What Hacker News says

ggmJul 2025

I thoroughly recommend the Dover books reprint of Henry Mayhew. "London Labour and the London poor" it is absolutely fascinating. People who had a brass farthing to rub together could enjoy eating 2 day old leftovers from the posh banquets, sold on the streets. (2 days because much of it was premade and so a day or so old by the time it hit the banquet table) Trifle and Lobster for anyone. Clothes rental was a thing. Dirt collecting had specialities with "pure" dog dung fetching extra prices for leather tanning.

I think Mayhew may have fed into Sydney and Beatrice Webb which in turn much later leads to Labour party policy, and ultimately the Beveridge report and birth of the welfare state.

Also, if you enjoyed Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting you will be familiar with Matthew the cats meat man.

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smileypeteAug 2020

For a far more nuanced and detailed look at life in London in the 1840s, read 'London Labour and the London Poor' by Henry Mayhew

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Labour_and_the_London_P...

https://archive.org/details/londonlabourand00mayhgoog

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55998

The economist article is OK but a little onesided and cheerleading from their typical angle.

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pjlegatoNov 2015

If you'd like to know what the daily life of mid-Victorian poor people was like in excruciating detail, check out "London Labour and the London Poor" by Henry Mayhew:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Labour_and_the_London_P...

A major point of interest is that the oceans had not yet been overfished, so fresh fish was an abundant and extremely cheap source of protein that formed a major constituent of most poor people's diet at the time.

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drieddustFeb 2019

You have got it backwards. These trees were not felled by individuals who were toiling to make a better tomorrow. On the contrary, greedy industralist made them toil and die for their profit. When Queen Victoria and her chronies were filling their pockets by looting the world, London was still a slum. Henry Mayhew documented this in his publication London Labour and the London Poor[1].

Things like 8 hour work week, health benefits etc were achived in blood.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Labour_and_the_London_P...

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