Book cover of Charles Booth's London Poverty Maps: A Landmark Reassessment of Booth's Social Survey

Book description

A splendid - and necessary - publication...a great resource
Iain Sinclair

Charles Booth's landmark survey of life in late-19th-century London, published for the first time in one volume.

In the late nineteenth century, Charles Booth's landmark social and economic survey found that 35 percent of Londoners were living in abject…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Charles Booth's London Poverty Maps as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Not a book as such, but these maps tell the social historian a great deal about London in the late-1800s. They were compiled by Charles Booth, a wealthy philanthropist, who wanted to highlight the areas of London in the greatest need of help. In order to achieve this, he despatched a team of researchers to every street in London (except the City,) to assess their character. The results were entered onto a colour-coded map – yellow streets were the most affluent; black were the resorts of “vicious semi-criminals”.

From Fiona's list on The best books on Victorian London.

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