Charles Booth Online Archive

This is one of the most advanced and satisfying websites on the internet. Charles Booth's famous survey of Victorian London was published as 'Life and Labour in London 1886-1903'. For the online project, the vast archive of notebooks (compiled for the survey by Booth and his team) has been indexed and digitised. Booth conducted in-depth interviews with Londoners to understand the conditions in which they lived and worked, and the results provide extraordinary insight into what life must have been like for so many of our urban ancestors. As well as the narrative account of his findings, Booth produced a series of 'Maps Descriptive of London Poverty', with each street colour-coded to show the exact economic conditions, ranging from Black (Vicious, Semi-Criminal), Dark Blue (Chronic Want) through various shades of purple and pink, to Yellow (Wealthy). These maps are also available online in a highly interactive form.



SPECIAL FEATURES


Introduction and Guides to the Archives The obvious place to start to understand the riches of this site and the Booth archive of notebooks, held at the London School of Economics.


Poverty Maps of London Browse or Search This gives you two ways of accessing the poverty maps. Browse takes you to an overview of the map and you can zoom in on any part that takes your fancy. Search gives you the choice of entering current street names, postcodes or Wards, or landmarks or parishes from 1898. If you know the street where your ancestors lived, type it into the search box, and you will be taken straight to relevant part of Booth's map. From the colour key you can check the average socio-economic status of residents of that street at the end of the nineteenth century. The map can be compared with a modern map, allowing you to check whether the street still exists or has been demolished or renamed, and what the nearest tube stop would be if you are planning a visit. A pull-down menu showing 'From this page you can...' allows you to jump to other information in the archives relevant to that street or place.


Search the Catalogue of Original Survey Notebook Pages Type in a location, place of interest, occupation or keyword and you will see all the indexed references held within the archive. Many of the pages have been scanned and digitised and can be viewed online either as jpegs, or dDjvu (which you need a special plug-in to view).


Inquiry into Life and Labour in London allows you toBrowse the Police Notebooks , taking a street-by-street tour around London neighbourhoods, conducted by the remarks made by the police who escorted Booth's team of researchers. Absolutely fascinating social history.


You can also explore themes such as childhood, crime, drink/drugs and smells. Under the last you will discover first-hand accounts of the distincitve mixture of glue and strawberry jam aromas that pervaded the streets of Bermondsey, while Newington suffered the from the smell of decaying fish.