BOOTH’S LONDON POVERTY SURVEY 1886-1903

Perhaps the most well-used results of the survey were the Maps of London Poverty where the levels of poverty and wealth found by the survey investigators was mapped out street by street and colour coded.

There were seven classes shown on the maps represented by different colours:

Black - Lowest class including both vicious and semi-criminal.

Dark Blue - Very poor, casual, in chronic want.             

Light Blue – Poor with an income of 18s. to 21s. a week for a moderate family.

Purple – Mixed, some poor others comfortable.

Pink - Fairly comfortable with good ordinary earnings. 

Red - Middle class and well-to-do.           

Yellow - Upper-middle and upper classes who were generally wealthy.

Streets identified with a combination of colours indicates that it contained a proportion of each of the represented classes; however, the colour codes on the maps do not always correspond with the poverty classification in the published survey. It can sometimes be difficult to interpret the map colours because the colours do not emphasise distinction because similar classes have colours which are not different enough so identification on individual streets more difficult.

Twelve poverty maps cover from Greenwich to Hammersmith, east/west and from Hampstead to Clapham, north/south. However, the City of London was not included in the survey so the City of London remains uncoloured and unclassified on the maps.

The 1889 edition of the poverty maps was based on information gathered from the School Board visitors. They used Stanford's 6 inches to 1 mile scale map of London and suburbs. The original working maps from this edition are held by the Museum of London which are hand-coloured and use the 1869 Ordnance Survey 1:2500 maps.

The 1898-9 edition of the maps, a comprehensive revision of the first series, were published in 1902 and 1903. The survey investigators who accompanied policemen on their beats also recorded their own impressions of each street and the comments put forward by the policemen. This information was used in updating the street classification used in 1889.

The investigators in London produced reports of their walks round London and which happened during 1898-99; these reports became known as the police notebooks. They contain descriptions and characterisations of London streets, their inhabitants and the industry that existed. All these notebooks have been digitised and can be viewed online. The route of the walks for each district is also shown in the notebooks. They are organised by districts which follow the administrative organisation of the County of London which existed from 1889 until the formation of the GLC in 1965.

The police notebooks provide an insight into the various communities originating from different places that settled in London; but more importantly, they show how such communities were perceived by the authorities. Around the time of the survey, London was undergoing expansion and population growth despite the fact that towards the latter part of the nineteenth century the waves of emigration were a dominant force throughout the country. Emigration to other areas of the British empire was common; a move to the USA was the most popular destination for Londoners who emigrated.

Stepney Union casebooks

There are six notebooks which contain transcriptions of the Stepney Union casebooks between 1889-1890. They detail case histories of both the Stepney and Bromley workhouses and information about both inmates and people who were in receipt of outdoor relief from that Union. This information will be particularly useful to family historians because you can also search the notebooks for names, birthdates or ages of individuals recorded.

Jewish notebooks

There are four notebooks relating to the Jewish community in London in the 1880s and 1890s. Jewish communities were of particular interest to the survey teams. During the late nineteenth century, London was home to a large Jewish population, principally from Eastern Europe, who had fled persecution to seek a new life in the capital. The Jewish population of London was second only to Irish settlers at the time.

Poverty notebooks

The poverty notebooks focus on occupations, household information including households with children, the streets, their inhabitants and classifications of levels of poverty, together with other useful genealogical information for some cases.

Industry notebooks

In order to provide a picture of labour in London many interviews with people connected with the trades of London took place. These notebooks are organised by trade and cover most occupations of the working-class people of late Victorian London.

Religious influences notebooks

The religious influences notebooks look at the role religion played in the lives of London residents. Religious leaders in communities across London were interviewed. Again they are organised by district with 1800 interviews recorded in notebooks; the majority were Anglicans in the diocese of London, but there were also some Roman Catholic priests and nonconformist ministers. Anglican ministers in the diocese of Southwark were also interviewed although they are listed for some reason under the diocese of Rochester.

These interviews can help locate individual London clergymen. The interviews were reckoned to have lasted for  about two and half hours and include the interviewer's comments on the character, reliability and appearance of each clergyman. The reports included name, status, age, length of service, previous experience and date and location of the interview; but the majority of questions were about the involvement of the church within the local population.