Nature of Source
Records from a private report and enquiry into the levels of poverty in London entitled the Life and Labour of the People in London. The report was set up in 1886 by the nonconformist Unitarian businessman and shipping magnate Charles Booth. The seventeen-volume report, condensed from 392 notebooks, was published between 1889 and 1903 in three series, ‘Poverty’ (1889), ‘Industry’ and ‘Religious Influences’ (1902). Notable Fabians Beatrice and Sidney Webb, founders of London School of Economics and Political Science otherwise known as the London School of Economics or the LSE, were amongst the researchers. Hence the survey is now held at the LSE. Volumes of the work are available to view online or download at the Internet Archive.
The survey classified each street into a number of social classes based on income and poverty levels with further reports on the working life of Londoners and religious activity in the city. The report also includes the original survey notebooks containing the observations of policemen whilst out on the beat and other interviews including those with clergymen.
The report was accompanied by a series of 12 maps, Maps Descriptive of London Poverty 1898-1899, with colour coding illustrating the various levels of prosperity and poverty. Some streets names and personal names in the printed volumes, especially in the poorest districts, were falsified to protect the identity of those subjected to the enquiry.
Also consult other 20th century poverty surveys held at the LSE. For example the New Survey of London Life and Labour begun in 1928 and concluded in 1933 as a deliberate attempt to update Charles Booth’s Survey. The survey and all associated material is held at The British Library of Political and Economic Science (LSE).
Where Found
Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science (The Charles Booth Online Archive is a searchable resource giving access to archive material from the Booth collections of the Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Senate House Library. The collection at LSE Library contains the original records from Booth’s survey into life and labour in London, dating from 1886 to 1903. The archives of the Senate House Library contain Booth family papers from 1799 to 1967)
University of Liverpool Library (Special Collections & Archives: Charles Booth Papers: A collection comprising 25 boxes of manuscript and typescript copy, corrected proofs, maps and other material [1887-1903] by Charles Booth and others for Life and Labour of the People in London. The typescripts include Ernest Ave’s amendments and unpublished material)
Period Covered
1889 – 1903
Genealogical Value
Names, addresses, places, maps
Further References
- Booth’s Maps of London Poverty: East and West 1889, Bloomsbury Publishing: Shire and Old House
- O’Day, Rosemary & Englander, David. Mr Charles Booth’s Inquiry: Life and Labour of the People in London Reconsidered: Hambledon Press, 1993 (Available to preview at Google Books)
Websites
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2016/09/09/charles-booths-london-mapping-victorian-lives (LSE Library: Charles Booth’s London-Mapping Victorian Lives. LSE Library’s Inderbir Bhullar explores the UNESCO inscripted Charles Booth archive, the LSE connection and how the archive came to LSE Library)
https://booth.lse.ac.uk/learn-more/the-booth-archive-at-lse-library (The Booth archive at LSE Library)
London Museum
How Charles Booth mapped London poverty.
https://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=3307&inst_id=1&nv1=search&nv2=basic (AIM25 catalogue entry describing the history of the Charles Booth Archive)
https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb141-booth (The Archives Hub: University of Liverpool Special Collections & Archives: Charles Booth Papers on the Life and Labour of the People in London. The Booth papers comprise manuscript and typescript copy, corrected proofs, maps and other material by Charles Booth and others for the study Life and Labour of the People in London)
Online Databases
https://booth.lse.ac.uk (Charles Booth’s London: Poverty maps and police notebooks: Charles Booth’s London enables you to search the catalogue of over 450 original notebooks from the Inquiry into Life and Labour in London, 1886-1903, view 41 digitised notebooks and explore the London poverty maps. The contents of LSE’s Charles Booth’s London can also be searched at Connected Histories together with a number of other databases)
www.thegenealogist.co.uk (Map Explorer: Booth Poverty Maps of London 1898-1899. Explore the historic Survey maps overlaid on top of modern background maps including those from Ordnance Survey)
www.layersoflondon.org (Layers of London. The site, developed by the Institute of Historical Research, provides access to free collections of digitised historic maps of London, photos and crowd-sourced histories and stories. Historic maps include: Rocque’s map of London, Westminster and Southwark, 1746; Booth’s Poverty Map, 1886-1903; OS Maps 1893-1896 and 1940s-1960s; RAF Aerial Collection, 1945-1949; Bomb Damage, 1945)
www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/sets/72157658449873093 (Flickr Commons LSE Library; Charles Booth Maps: Access to digitised maps from of Charles Booth’s Inquiry into Life and Labour In London)
CD Roms
N/A
