Life & Labour of the People in London

Published by Macmillan in 1902 as part of Charles Booth’s monumental Life and Labour of the People in London, these maps are...

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Published by Macmillan in 1902 as part of Charles Booth’s monumental Life and Labour of the People in London, these maps are landmarks of social cartography. Booth and his investigators spent years gathering evidence through census data, School Board records and street-by-street walks with local police. On the famous poverty sheets, every street is colour-coded from black and dark blue for the poorest districts through pink and red to yellow for the wealthy, making London’s inequalities immediately visible. Other maps chart the institutions—churches, schools, pubs and places of entertainment—that shaped urban life. Covering neighbourhoods from Hammersmith to Woolwich, the maps turn Booth’s vast inquiry into a compelling visual record of Edwardian London and helped establish systematic social investigation as an instrument of reform.

Published by Macmillan in 1902 as part of Charles Booth’s monumental Life and Labour of the People in London, these maps are landmarks of social cartography. Booth and his investigators spent years gathering evidence through census data, School Board records and street-by-street walks with local police. On the famous poverty sheets, every street is colour-coded from black and dark blue for the poorest districts through pink and red to yellow for the wealthy, making London’s inequalities immediately visible. Other maps chart the institutions—churches, schools, pubs and places of entertainment—that shaped urban life. Covering neighbourhoods from Hammersmith to Woolwich, the maps turn Booth’s vast inquiry into a compelling visual record of Edwardian London and helped establish systematic social investigation as an instrument of reform.

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