Sweeps, nomads, quacks and crawlers: The exotic down and outs of Victorian London captured on camera in the 1870s



In the frantic pace of modern life, it is often easy to forget what life was once like for those who built the world we now live in.

These fascinating black and white pictures taken by photographer John Thompson show the reality of existence in the 1800s when photography was in its infancy.

In 1876 he set out with writer Adolphe Smith and together the pair spoke to people and the shots were later published in magazine, Street Life in London.

The pictures, now stored at the Bishopsgate Institute, capture the lives of street beggars, chimney sweeps, street doctors and market sellers among many others.



Each picture caption is accompanied by the words written by Mr Smith and originally printed in the monthly magazine.



Described by Adolphe Smith as an 'old women reduced by vice and poverty to that degree of wretchedness which destroys even the energy to beg'

Mr Thompson, who was born in Edinburgh, spent his life capturing the lives of people and landscapes around the world. His pictures received critical acclaim and Thompson published a number of books which included works from China, Cambodia, Thailand and Cypress. Today nearly 700 of his photographs are kept at the Wellcome Library in London. One of his most captivating photographs is that of The Crawlers, pictured above, which was taken between 1876 and 1877 and published in his magazine Street Life in London. Each month, three of Thompson's shots were printed in the book for a year, starting in February 1877 and each had the text written by Mr Smith.

Thompson aimed to help middle class Victorians gain an insight to what life was like for those living in poverty. The woman featured in the picture was the widow of a tailor who she is sitting on a stone step wearing a headscarf, a long skirt and a striped shawl.

She holds a young child in her arms and is looking after it while its mother works at a nearby coffee shop. In exchange for caring for the child, the old woman will get a cup of tea and a slice of bread. The people pictured were always 'hard working, honest individuals, prevented by their station in life from further advancement'. William Hampton of the London Nomades, a group of travellers who were staying on vacant land in Battersea: 'Why what do I want with education? Any chaps of my acquaintance that knows how to write and count proper ain't much to be trusted into the bargain'

An Old Clothes Shop in St Giles: 'As a rule, secondhand clothes shops are far from distinguished in their cleanliness, and are often the fruitful medium for the propagation of fever, smallpox &c'

Caney the Clown once delighted at the pantomime but 'since his exertions to please at Stepney Fair caused the bursting of a varicose vein in his leg, the mending of chairs brings him constant employment'

Street Doctor: 'Vendors of pills, potions and quack nostrums are not quite so numerous as they were in former days'

Dealer in Fancy Ware: 'It's not so much the imitation jewels the women are after, it's the class of jewels that make the imitation lady'

The Seller of Shellfish: 'Me and my missus are here at this corner with the barrow in all weathers, ¿specially the missus, as I takes odd jobs beating carpets, cleaning windows, and working round the public houses with my goods'

The Temperance Sweep: 'To his newly acquired sobriety, monetary prosperity soon ensued and he is well known throughout the neighbourhood, where he advocates the cause of total abstinence'

Survivors of Street Floods in Lambeth: 'As for myself, I have never felt right since that awful night when, with my little girl, I sat above the water on my bed until the tide went down'

The London Boardmen: 'If they walk on the pavement, the police indignantly throw them off into the gutter, where they become entangled in the wheels of carriages, and where cabs and omnibuses are ruthlessly driven against them' A Convicts' Home: 'It is to be regretted that the accompanying photograph does not include one of the released prisoners, but the publication of their portraits might have interfered with their chances of getting employment' Italian Street Musicans: 'There is an element of romance about the swarthy Italian youth to which the English poor cannot aspire' The Street Locksmith: 'There are several devoted to this business along the Whitechapel Rd, and each possesses a sufficient number of keys to open almost every lock in London' The Water Cart: 'It costs me about twelve shillings a week for my living and the rest I must save, I have laid aside eight pounds this past twelve months'