'Street Life in London'
Scraping and hustling at the center of an empire
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1873-1877
A beggar paid to look after a baby.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
From 1873 to 1877, Scottish photographer John Thomson collaborated with journalist Adolphe Smith to document the lives of London’s urban poor.Their project, Street Life in London, was released in monthly installments and later as a single volume.Thomson and Smith combined unposed, documentary images of street vendors, beggars and other workers with interviews, essays and reportage, which explored poverty as a sociological problem to be studied and alleviated. Their project was one of the first examples of socially-concerned documentary photography, and set the tone for concerned photographers of the next century, such as Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine.
A street trader and shoeshine.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A fruit vendor.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A street procession on Bonfire Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Night.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
c. 1877
People in front of a rag shop in Lambeth, London, where the Thames annual tidal overflow causes hardship to the locals.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
c. 1877
Friends enjoy a beer outside The Wallmaker, a public house.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A man waits for fatigued or adventurous promenaders in a London common to approach him for a donkey ride.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A street photographer at work on Clapham Common.
Credit: John Thomson/General Photographic Agency/Getty Images
A shellfish stall owner sells oysters and whelks.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
A fancy ware dealer sells ornaments from his barrow.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
An Italian harpist entertains local children on the street.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
c. 1877
A "Gypsy" caravan at an encampment near Latimer Road in Notting Hill.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1877
Public disinfectors sanitize the streets after an outbreak of smallpox.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
1877
Flower women selling bouquets at Covent Garden market.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1877
A secondhand furniture shop.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A water cart.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A dining room for ex-convicts. The owner, left, speaks with Ramo Sammy, a local Indian drummer known as the "tam tam man."
Credit: John Thomson/Spencer Arnold/Getty Images
A shoeshine boy at work.
Credit: John Thomson/General Photographic Agency/Getty Images
1877
"Caney" the clown weaves cane strips into the seat of a wooden chair.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1877
A locksmith mends locks at his stall.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Barge workers on the Thames.
Credit: John Thomson/SSPL/Getty Images
1877
A chimney sweep and his assistant.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
Feb. 16, 1877
A man wears a sandwich-board advertisement.
Credit: John Thomson/SSPL/Getty Images
1877
"Mush-Fakers" and ginger beer makers with their cart.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1876
A street vendor sells halfpenny ices.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A signwriter at work in his studio.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
1877
A horse-drawn hansom cab.
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
1877
An omnibus driver known as "Cast-Iron Billy."
Credit: John Thomson/Getty Images
1877
Bill stickers paste placards advertising Madame Tussaud's waxworks museum.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1877
A vendor sells cough lozenges.
Credit: John Thomson/SSPL/Getty Images
1877
Costermonger Joseph Carney sells fresh herring from his barrow in the street market between Seven Dials and Five Dials in London.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1877
British army recruiting sergeants outside a public house at Westminster.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Porters with boxes of plants at Covent Garden market.
Credit: John Thomson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images