In 1888 Cardinal Manning wrote: ‘Those who live among the statistics and have seldom, if ever, lived among the poor, little know how poverty brings temptation and temptation both vice and crime.’134
Too often historians are guilty of also living among the statistics when exploring London’s streetwalkers and vagrants 1885-1905, believing that numbers and percentages inform far more readily than written observation, comments or archive reports. In fact, it is often the latter selection that grants a deeper and more subtle understanding of the Twilight City. By using these sources we can slowly reveal and explore the identity of vagrants and streetwalkers as individuals and not simply as a ‘type’ belonging to a category. Taking this methodology further, we can analyse the reactions to vagrants with a more critical eye.
It is also time, perhaps, to step back from the historical obsession with the late Victorian and early Edwardian lexicon of poverty and, instead, focus our energy on exploring the underlying intentions conveyed within letters, articles and reports.
Digging deeper
Certainly by delving a little deeper into primary sources and archive material, we begin to see that each vagrant has his or her own story to tell. One vagrant could have lost his job due to infirmity; another might lack the skills to do anything other than irregular manual work. Some became unemployed as changes in public taste rendered their work obsolete; others lost their jobs with the arrival of new technology. Many were destitute due to alcoholism and their inability to shake off their addiction. Some only indulged in heavy drinking once the slide into vagrancy was complete.
The late Victorians and early Edwardians were aware that vagrants of the Twilight City could no longer be simply divided into ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ categories once their reasons for their misfortune were known. As Reaney points out in 1888: ‘Hundreds, nay thousands, who to-day are idle and thriftless, were not always thus, and came to their sad condition by cruel force of circumstance.’135
The harsh terminology and the outcry against vagrants would only really erupt when the latter were deemed to have invaded mainstream areas and time zones, particularly in the parks. As we have seen, some claimed vagrants were a threat to safety. Others believed them a threat to health. All, however, wanted the police and authorities to send them back to the Twilight City’s nocturnal streets.
Put simply, there can be no overall model concerning vagrants and the failure by many historians to offer a balanced account does a grave diservice to the men and women who struggled hard to help those on the edge of a grinding poverty that is now almost alien to the British Isles.
The trouble with Walkowitz
The historical understanding and investigation of streetwalking has been exhaustive, but focused only on the women in terms of their ‘trade’. Only by asking about who the streetwalkers were, why they had chosen to enter the ‘sex industry’ and what the individual difficulties they suffered from were, do we begin to appreciate that many previous historical models are often incomplete.
First and foremost, Walkowitz’s assertion that most prostitutes chose their ‘career’ and then soon left the ‘sex industry’ of their own volition is deeply problematic. Her claim that many streetwalkers were independent in ways respectable women could never aspire to is also unbalanced. This argument might be true of the very few successful prostitutes at the centre of the Bright Light City, but for those on the periphery, control of their lives was often lost because of their inability to cover costs, maintain stable relationships and, for many, to halt their excessive drinking.
A second difficulty with Walkowitz’s argument is her inability to seek out sources from those who lived with the consequences of streetwalking. The case study we have examined, of the problems faced by two shopkeepers in EndersleighGardens, show in stark detail the seediness of streetwalking: the foul language, use of doorways as latrines, sex in public spaces. In this light there is nothing independent or free-spirited in this trade, only various levels of exploitation, degradation and disappointment. The only positive thing to say is that most streetwalkers we have examined successfully maintained their individuality and had some say in the terms by which they made their living.
Closely tied into the arguments explored in relation to vagrants using the parks, we see anger and harsh words from people when streetwalkers were considered to have encroached on areas that mainstream society regarded as theirs. Mainstream frustration only became amplified when it was believed that the police and local authorities were not enforcing their notions of decency and decorum, despite the fact that they were often unable to distinguish prostitutes from respectable woman (clear evidence that there was no ‘one-size-fits-all’ category of streetwalker then, and why there should be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ streetwalker in historic appraisals).
The Whitechapel murder victims are useful for historians in that the details of their lives are possibly more comprehensive than the histories of any other streetwalker from the era. We see that far from developing and relying on an extensive network of support, these women were frequently forced to work the streets of the Twilight City very much on their own, battling just to keep a roof over their heads. In their minds there was still one additional fall in the so-called ‘Abyss’ – vagrancy.
Taking the above lines of enquiry we can begin to overturn several preconceptions held today about mainstream late Victorian and early Edwardian views on vagrants and streetwalkers. In turn, we can also help build a model for our times and engender a more sympathetic understanding of the vagrants and streetwalkers in the TwilightCity of today.
REFERENCES
1) White, Jerry, London in the Nineteenth Century
(JonathanCape, 2007), p.90
2) Vasili, Paul, The World of London (Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Riverton, 1885), p.iv
3) Inwood, Stephen, City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London (Macmillan, 2005), p.378
4) Gilnert, Ed, East End Chronicles (Penguin, 2006), p.87
5) Inwood, City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London, p.7
6) Ibid, p.8
7) Baker, H. Barton, Stories of the Streets of London (Chapman and Hall, 1899), p.65
8) Inwood, City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London, p.278
9) White, London in the Nineteenth Century, p.58
10) Constaple, Hope, London After Dark, (H Clements, 1894), p.52
11) Ibid, p.55
12) Idem
13) Morrison, Arthur, Whitechapel, The Palace Journal (24 April, 1889), www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
14) Cowper, Katie, (Knowles James, editor), Some experience of work in an East End district, Nineteenth Century Vol.18 July-December (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1885), p.785-86
15) Work 16/508
16) Inwood, City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London, p.95
17) Steadman-Jones, Gareth, Outcast London: A study in the relationship between classes in Victorian Society (Peregrine Books, 1976), p.287
18) London, Jack, The People of the Abyss (Pluto Classic, 2001 [First published in 1903]), p.3
19) Ibid, p.151
20) Ibid, p.152
21) Ibid, p.49
22) Booth, Charles, Condition and Occupation of the People: Tower Hamlets 1886-1887 (Edward Stanford, 1887), p.28
23) Reaney, G S, How to help; or Pen and Pencil Sketches of the East End (James Nisbet, 1888), p.23
24) Besant, Walter, East London (Chatto & Windus, 1903), p.240
25) Machray, Robert, The Night Side of London (Bibliophile Books, 1984 [first published in 1902]), p.18
26) Idem
27) Pearsall, Ronald, The Worm in the Bud (Sutton, 2003), p.284
28) Krausse, A S, Starving London: The story of a three weeks’ sojourn among the destitute (Remington, 1896), p.51
29) Idem
30) Ibid, p.52
31) Constaple, London After Dark, p.7
32) Ibid, p.32
33) Ibid, p.35
34) Letter from Mr. Cavanagh to Metropolitan Police, 1887, Mepo 2/181, National Archives
35) Baker, H. Barton, Stories of the Streets of London (Chapman and Hall, 1899), p.253
36) Constaple, London After Dark, p.20
37) Ibid, p.20-23
38) Ibid, p.23
39) London, The People of the Abyss, p.59
40) Idem
41) Ibid, p.60
42) Police report, 3/8/1887, National Archives, Mepo 2/181
43) London, The People of the Abyss, p.61
44) Ibid, p.62
45) Article on Vagrants in Hyde Park, Saturday Review, September 1901, National Archives, Work 16/508
46) ‘Yours of Bayswater’, Reply to editor, Saturday Review, September 1901, National Archives, Work 16/508
47) Letter by Cecil Raleigh to the Office of Works, 19/03/1902, National Archives, Work 16/508
48) Letter by C. Stewart, Clerk of LondonCounty Council to the Office of Works, 14/09/1898, National Archives, Work 16/508
49) Idem
50) Police report dated 01/09/1887, National Archives, Mepo 2/181
51) The Daily Chronicle, editorial comment, 17/07/1903, National Archives, Work 16/508
52) The Daily Telegraph, editorial comment, 13/04/1904, National Archives, Work 16/508
53) Besant, Walter, East London (Chatto & Windus, 1903), p.238
54) Ibid, p.248
55) Booth, William, In Darkest England (William Burgess, 1890), p.30
56) Ibid, p.27
57) Idem
58) Idem
59) Ibid, p.28
60) Idem
61) Idem
62) Idem
63) Morning Post, On the Thames Embankment, 29/12/1897, National Archives, Mepo 2/645, p.7
64) Ibid, p.7
65) Idem
66) Ibid, p.9
67) Morning Post, clipping, February 1898, National Archives, Mepo 2/645
68) Morning Post, On the Thames Embankment, 29/12/1897, National Archives, Mepo 2/645, p.9
69) Idem
70) Morning Post , clipping, February 1898, National Archives, Mepo 2/645
71) Police report dated 18/02/1898
72) Police notes on the prosecution of Edith Hill for breaching Vagrancy Act, 1890, National Archives, Mepo 2/242
73) Walkowitz, Judith, Prostitution and Victorian Society (Cambridge university Press, 1980), p.16
74) Idem
75) Ibid, p.17
76) Ibid, p.19
77) Ibid, p.13
78) Ibid, p.17
79) Pearsall, Ronald, The Worm in the Bud (Sutton, 2003), p.299
80) Ibid, p.295-96
81) Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society, p.13
82) White, London in the Nineteenth Century, p.309
83) Booth, In Darkest England, p.50
84) London, The People of the Abyss, p.137-138
85) Chesney, The Victorian Underworld, p.317
86) Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society, p.29
87) White, London in the Nineteenth Century, p.314-15
88) Chesney, The Victorian Underworld, p.334
89) Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society, p.20
90) Chesney, The Victorian Underworld, p.316
91) Constaple, London After Dark, p.15
92) Idem
93) Ibid, p.16
94) Cozens, Thomas J, A, Dark Deed: A Tale of Modern Life (founded on fact) (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1890), p.53
95) Machray, Robert, The Night Side of London (Bibliophile Books, 1984 [first published in 1902]), p.16
96) London, The People of the Abyss, p.59-60
97) Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society, p.29
98) Girouard, Mark, Victorian Pubs (Studio Vista, 1975), p.17
99) Files relating to the prosecution of Alfred Rubery landlord of the Wayland Tavern for allowing prostitutes to frequent his premises, National Archives, Mepo 2/384
100) The Daily News ‘An Autumn Evening in Whitechapel’, 03/11/1888, www.casebook.org/victorian_london/autumnev.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
101) London, The People of the Abyss, p.152
102) Idem
103) Idem
104) Letter by Mr. Elton to police complaining of streetwalkers in Endersleigh Gardens, 22/02/1892, National Archives, Mepo 2/293
105) Letter by Mr. Stocken to police complaining of streetwalkers in Endersleigh Gardens, 22/02/1892, National Archives, Mepo 2/293
106) Police report on interview with Mr. Elton, 26/02/1892, National Archives, Mepo 2/293
107) Police report on fellow-up interview with Mr. Stocken, 03/03/1892
108) Police report on follow-up interview with Mr. Elton, 26/02/1892, National Archives, Mepo 2/293
109) Police report on prostitutes in Hyde Park, 18/07/1892, National Archives, Mepo 2/5815
110) Police report on prostitutes in Hyde Park, 27/08/1894, National Archives, Mepo 2/5815
111) Police report on discussion with the Colonel of 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, 28/8/1903
112) Pick-me-up No 46, Vol II. August 17, 1889
113) Booth, In Darkest England, p.53
114) Begg, Paul, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History (Pearson, 2005), p.105
115) Horsler, Val, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper (National Archives, 2007), p.26
116) Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p.107
117) Horsler, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper, p.26
118) Casebook.org, Polly Nichols, www.casebook.org/victims/polly.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
119) Horsler, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper, p.28
120) Casebook.org Annie Chapman, www.casebook.org/victims/chapman.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
121) Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p.188
122) Horsler, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper, p.36
123) Horsler, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper, p.36
124) Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p.292
125) Ibid, p.289
126) Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p.290
127) Idem
128) Casebook.org Mary Jane Kelly, www.casebook.org/victims/mary_jane_kelly.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
129) Horsler, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper, p.68
130) Idem
131) Casebook.org Mary Jane Kelly, www.casebook.org/victims/mary_jane_kelly.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
132) Horsler, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper, p.68
133) Chesney, Kellow, The Victorian Underworld (History Book Club, 1970), p.319
134) Cardinal Manning, (Knowles James, editor), A Pleading for the Worthless, Nineteenth Century Vol.23 Jan-June (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1888), p.134
135) Reaney, G S, How to help; or Pen and Pencil Sketches of the East End (James Nisbet, 1888), p.83
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Arnold White (editor), The Truth about the Salvation Army (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton and Kent, 1892)
Banks, Charles B, All sorts and Conditions of Women: A romance of the East End (Elliot Stock, 1899)
Baker, H. Barton, Stories of the Streets of London (Chapman and Hall, 1899)
Besant, Walter, East London (Chatto & Windus, 1903)
Booth, Charles, Condition and Occupation of the People: Tower Hamlets 1886-1887 (Edward Stanford, 1887)
Booth, William, In Darkest England (William Burgess, 1890)
Bramwell (Knowles James, editor), Lord Bramwell on Drink, Nineteenth Century, Vol.17 Jan-June (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1885)
Cardinal Manning, (Knowles James, editor), A Pleading for the Worthless, Nineteenth Century Vol.23 Jan-June (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1888)
Constaple, Hope, London After Dark, (H Clements, 1894)
Cowper, Katie, (Knowles James, editor), Some experience of work in an East End district, Nineteenth Century Vol.18 July-December (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1885)
Cozens, Thomas J, A, Dark Deed: A Tale of Modern Life (founded on fact) (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1890)
Daily News ‘An Autumn Evening in Whitechapel’, 03/11/1888, www.casebook.org/victorian_london/autumnev.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
Davidson, John, In A Music Hall (Ward and Downey,1891)
Dziewicki, M.H., (Knowles James, editor), In praise of London fog, Nineteenth Century, Vol.23 July-December (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1889)
Fry, H., London in 1887 (W H Allen, 1887)
Illustrated Penny Tales (George Newnes, 1894)
Janvier, Thomas A., London by Night, Harper’s Monthly Month, 116 (December, 1907-May 1908) p.137
Katscher, Leopold (Knowles James, editor), German Life in London, Nineteenth Century, Vol.21 Jan-June (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1887)
Krausse, A S, Starving London: The story of a three weeks’ sojourn among the destitute (Remington, 1896)
London, Jack, The People of the Abyss (Pluto Classic, 2001 [first published in 1903])
London Scene from the Strand: Aspects of Victorian London culled from the StrandMagazine (Diploma Press, 1974)
Machray, Robert, The Night Side of London (Bibliophile Books, 1984 [first published in 1902])
Marquis of Queensbury, Marriage and the relation between the sexes (Watts, 1893)
Mepo 2/181, Vagrants in Trafalgar Square . Vagrants in Trafalgar Square Metropolitan Police: Office of the Commissioner, 1887-1888, National Archives
Mepo 2/203, Vagrancy: night shelters for homeless men and women, 1889-1901, National Archives
Mepo 2/243 Vagrants failing to maintain themselves: no arrest without warrant, 1890, National Archives
Mepo 2/293, Prostitution: complaints about houses and behaviour in Euston Road area, 1892-1901 National Archives
Mepo 2/384, Public Houses: prostitutes frequenting, 1894-1902, National Archives
Mepo 2/645, Vagrancy: Victoria Embankment; coke fires and food for homeless, 1897 – 1904, National Archives
Mepo 2/689, Betting and gaming: urinal adjoining a public house, 1904, National Archives
Mepo 2/899, Vagrancy: street collections by unemployed, 1905, National Archives
Mepo 2/5815, Hyde Park: prostitution, indecency and disorderly conduct therein, 1892-1922, National Archives
Mepo 2/8817, Unemployed men parading streets for the purpose of soliciting alms: dealt with under Vagrancy Act 1824, 1886-1903, National Archives
Morrison, Arthur, ‘Whitechapel’, The Palace Journal (24 April, 1889), www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
Pick-me-up all editions from October 1888 - October 1889, Colindale
Pick-me-up, No.87., Vol.IV, 31/05/1890, Author’s collection
Reaney, G S, How to help; or Pen and Pencil Sketches of the East End (James Nisbet, 1888)
Shand, Alex Innes, Half a Century, or changes in men and manners (William Blackwood, 1888)
Slang Dictionary (Chatto and Windus, 1885)
The Strand Magazine, Jan to June Vol.1 and July to December Vol. II, (Burleigh Street, 1891)
The Strand Magazine, Jan to June Vol. III (Burleigh Street, 1892)
Treves, Frederick, The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences (Cassell, 1923)
Vasili, Paul, The World of London (Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Riverton, 1885)
White, Arnold, (Knowles James, editor), The invasion of pauper foreigners, Nineteenth Century Vol.23 Jan-June (Kegan Paul, Trench, 1888)
Williams, Montague, Round London (Macmillan, 1892)
Work 16/508, Revision of rules to exclude Vagrants and Verminous persons from the Parks, 1898-1913, National Archives
Secondary sources
Ackroyd, P. Illustrated London (Chatto & Windus, 2003)
Begg, Paul, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History (Pearson, 2005)
Betjeman, J., Victorian & Edwardian London in Old Photographs (Batsford, 1969)
Booth, J.B., LondonTown(T. Werner Laurie, 1929)
Casebook.org, Polly Nichols, www.casebook.org/victims/polly.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
Casebook.org Annie Chapman, www.casebook.org/victims/chapman.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
Casebook.org Elizabeth Stride, www.casebook.org/victims/stride.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
Casebook.org Catherine Eddowes, www.casebook.org/victims/eddowes.html, www.casebook.org (27/8/2007)
Casebook.org Mary Jane Kelly,www.casebook.org/victims/mary_jane_kelly.html, www.casebook.org(27/8/2007)
Chesney, Kellow, The Victorian Underworld (History Book Club, 1970)
Christiansen, Rupert, The Victorian Visitors: Culture Shock in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000)
Clayton, A., Decadent London (Historical Publications, 2005)
Fried, A. & Elman, R. M., (eds.), Charles Booth’s London (Penguin, 1971)
Frost, Ginger S., Promises Broken (University Press of Virginia, 1995)
Gilnert, Ed, East End Chronicles (Penguin, 2006)
Girouard, Mark, Victorian Pubs (Studio Vista, 1975)
Graham, Peter W. & Oehlschlaegar, Fritz H., Articulating the Elephant Man (John Hopkins University Press, 1992)
Hamilton Buckley, Jerome, The Triumph of Time: A study in the Victorian concepts of Time, History and Decadence (Belknapp Press of Harvard University Press, 1966)
Harrison, Michael, London by Gaslight: 1861-1911 (Peter Davis, 1963)
Hattersley, R., The Edwardians (Abacus, 2006)
Hobsbawm, E. J., Labouring Men (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972)
Horsler, Val, Crime Archive: Jack the Ripper (The National Archives, 2007)
Howard, Martin, Victorian Grotesque (Jupiter Books, 1977)
Howell, Michael & Ford, Peter, The True History of the Elephant Man (Penguin, 1992)
Inwood, Stephen, City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London (Macmillan, 2005)
Linnane, F., London: The Wicked City (Robson Books, 2003)
Margetson, Stella, Fifty years of Victorian London (Macdonald, 1969)
Margetson, S., Leisure and pleasure in the Nineteenth Century (Redwood Press, 1971)
O’Neill, G., The Good Old Days (Viking, 2006)
Palmer, A., The East End: four centuries of London life (John Murray, 2004)
Pearsall, Ronald, The Worm in the Bud (Sutton, 2003)
Pelling, H., Popular Politics & Society in Late Victorian Britain (Macmillan Press, 1979)
Porter, Roy, London: A Social History (Penguin, 2000)
Schneer, Johnathan, London: 1900 (Yale Nota Bene, 2001)
Seaman, L. C. B., Life in Victorian London (Batsford, 1973)
Service, A., London 1900 (Granada Publishing, 1979)
Steadman-Jones, Gareth, Outcast London: A study in the relationship between classes in Victorian Society (Peregrine Books, 1976)
Sweet, Matthew, Inventing the Victorians (Faber and Faber, 2002)
Thompson, F. Michael, The Rise of Respectable Society 1830-1900 (Fontana Press, 1988)
Thomson, Graeme, Edward VII ate my hamster!, Time Out (25 April – 1 May, 2007)
Walkowitz, Judith, City of Dreadful Delight (University of Chicago Press, 1992)
Walkowitz, Judith, Prostitution and Victorian Society (Cambridge university Press, 1980)
Weightman, Gavin & Humphries, Steve The Making of Modern London: 1815-1914 (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985)
White, Jerry, London in the Nineteenth Century (JonathanCape, 2007)
White, Jerry, Never had it so good, Time Out (25 April – 1 May, 2007)
RETURN TO WELCOME
