SLUMS & AVENUES

During the second half of the 19^thC cutting a road through a slum district was regarded as being an effective means of making the problem disappear from its immediate environment. In part, street widening derived from a wish to stop what were believed to be miasma gases gathering and so causing disease. The clearances did nothing to solve the overall issue of squalid neighbourhoods but they were a means of shifting a particular instance of one into another district. In part, the reason that the East End's slums became as notorious as they did was because the City of London and the West End had demolished most of theirs away. The problem was accentuated by the creation of railway stations which were sometimes constructed over what had been slums. New Oxford Street (1847) was the first of the great West End roads that were made in the 19^thC. Kingsway (1905) was the last of them to be cut.

The Irish potato famine led to 100,000 Irish people settling in London.

Location: Kingsway, WC2B 6QX (blue, white)

New Oxford Street, WC1A 1BL (purple, white)

Charles Booth

Charles Booth came from a ship owning family. He found himself having doubts about the quality of statistical data on poverty. He established a group to investigate social conditions in the East End.¹ This concluded that 35% of the district s inhabitants were living in the circumstances of abject poverty. The research was published as Life and Labour of The People (1889). Labour and Life of The People (1891) covered the rest of London. Expanded editions of the research were published over 1892-7 and 1902-3. His work influenced the government's approach towards the poor. Booth became an advocate of a state-funded old-age pension. Booth had a dislike of sensationalist and sentimental writing about London's poverty. He respected George Gissing's prose.

Location: 6 Grenville Place, SW7 4RU (red, orange)

Website: https://booth.lse.ac.uk

¹. Booth's researchers included Beatrice Potter, who was a cousin of his. As Beatrice Webb, she was to become a prominent figure in left-wing intellectual circles.

Campbell Bunk

Campbell Road in Finsbury Park ran north of Seven Sisters Road, to the west of Fonthill Road. It was a 20^thC hangover from the 19^thC.

People from Campbell Bunk were cleared to Hornsey Rise and surrounding areas. It became known as Hungry Hill. Hazellville Road is known as Mount KillAManForHisGiro.

The 1950s and 1960s Churnfield, etc. pebble-dash estates were built on the site.

Clare Market

The district of Clare Market was a 17^thC development that sought to exploit the westward growth of London. It was centred upon a food market that was not governed by the livery companies of the City of London. The district's partially surviving jumbled street pattern would have been paralleled by those of other quarters that were cleared away in the late 19^thC and early 20^thC to create streets such as Charing Cross Road and Kingsway.

Location: Clare Market, WC2A 4AD (orange, purple)

Colonies and Islands

Some of the West End's rookeries were named after colonies that convicted criminals were deported to. Bermuda Island was to the north of the western end of the Strand. It was renamed Carib because sent to other islands as well. Somers Town used to be known as Botany Bay. In the early 19^thC Porridge Island was to south of Chandos Street by St Martin-in-the-Fields. It took its name from porridge being a name for a prison term.

Depictions and Descriptions of Slums

In Dickens descriptions of slums there is hope of deliverance. This co-exists with the possibility that the hope may be dashed . In Hogarth s imagery there is no hope of redemption .

See Also: CHARLES DICKENS; WILLIAM HOGARTH

The Old Nichol

The Old Nichol¹ consisted of about thirty streets that were spread over fifteen acres that lay to the east of Shoreditch High Street and to the north of Bethnal Green Road. Gerry-built houses had been erected on the land there during the first two decades of the 19^thC. By the later part of the century the district had almost 6000 inhabitants. On Booth s map of poverty in London black was used to indicate destitution; the area appeared as a dark slab. However, for the Old Nichol's landlords, the area was a goldmine. Some of them sat upon the vestry, which was the local government authority. The body did nothing to improve the situation.

Bennet Burleigh, a journalist on The Daily Telegraph newspaper, identified the district's principal landlords and publicised what they had been doing. His activities were aided by Lady Mary Jeune. Montague Williams Q.C. distributed woollen blankets to the poor. These had his initials embroidered upon them so that they could not be pawned. In 1889 the London County Council was established.

Arthur Morrison's novel A Child of The Jago (1896) publicised the area's acute social problems. The book was a bestseller and helped to prompt the Council to use its powers under the Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890 to demolish the Old Nichol and to construct new sanitary tenement blocks. However, the district's former inhabitants were not rehoused in these. Instead, the new flats were occupied by artisans and better-off labourers. The Boundary Estate was opened by the Prince of Wales.

The Rev Osborne Montgomery Jay raised funds that were used to build Holy Trinity Church. The cleric was guided by his beliefs that the local population deserved the best. The artist Lord Leighton regarded the building as having the best interior in London. Its basement housed a Men's Club and gymnasium. This provided an opportunity for local men to try to improve their lot and many of them succeeded in doing so.²

Location: Arnold Circus, E2 7ES. The Boundary Estate was built upon what had been The Jago. (red, pink)

¹. The Old Nichol was also known as Friars Mount.

². In later life the Rev Osborne became a supporter of the eugenics movement.

St Giles

St Giles was not owned by the Dukes of Bedford, who owned land both to the north and the south of it. Denmark Street was good housing. Aerial bombing destroyed a lot of the rookery. St Giles Court was built on the site. Bainbridge Street and Dyott Street survive from the rookery. The area behind The 12 Bar Club has an atmosphere of its own.

Location: Central Saint Giles, 1 St Giles High Street, WC2H 8AG. Central St Giles stands on the site of St Giles Court. (red, blue)

Website: www.centralsaintgiles.com

Seven Dials

Seven Dials was known to some as the armpit of London .

Location: Seven Dials, WC2H 9HD (purple, red)

David Backhouse 2024