Life and Labour of the People of London, Charles BOOTH 1840-1916

[markheal]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wsxf
Booth's Life and Labour Survey

In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's survey, The Life and Labour of the People in London, published in 17 volumes from 1889 to 1903. Booth (1840-1916), a Liverpudlian shipping line owner, surveyed every household in London to see if it was true, as claimed, that as many as a quarter lived in poverty. He found that it was closer to a third, and that many of these were either children with no means of support or older people no longer well enough to work. He went on to campaign for an old age pension, and broadened the impact of his findings by publishing enhanced Ordnance Survey maps with the streets coloured according to the wealth of those who lived there.

The image above is of an organ grinder on a London street, circa 1893, with children dancing to the Pas de Quatre

With

Emma Griffin
Professor of Modern British History at the University of East Anglia

Sarah Wise
Adjunct Professor at the University of California

And

Lawrence Goldman
Emeritus Fellow in History at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson
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https://booth.lse.ac.uk/learn-more/what-was-the-inquiry
MAPS
https://booth.lse.ac.uk/map/14/-0.1174/51.5064/100/0

[rocala]

Thank you. Very interesting material. I for some time had assumed that this Booth was the same as the founder of the Salvation Army.

[Maiden Stone]

Thanks for the post. I listened to the programme when it was broadcast and meant to tell people about it.
A clergyman in Liverpool had done a similar survey in a parish if I remember correctly.
A contributor to RootsChat found a religious census of a small rural parish in early 19thC. in which the clergyman had included some information about earnings and conditions in some homes.