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All images by John Thomson; copyright Bishopsgate Institute via Spitalfields Life
Thank you to Spitalfields Life
Street Life in London, 1876
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I am in awe of these old pictures! I would love to be able to go back and live there, but only for the day!!
Thanks for sharing.
Poverty ain’t cute. How long til scenes analogous to these are forever banished from the developing world too?
Actually, I think the correct and more appropriate question is: How soon before history repeats itself yet again, and we’re seeing fresh brand new images just like these again?
Why “copyright Bishopsgate Institute”. Aren’t these images in the public domain yet? John Thomson died in 1921. Are the images so greatly modified from the originals as to generate a renovated copyright?
It would do us good, when we feel hard done by, to remember how people lived in these times.
Loved these photos but wished for more information, such as, where was it taken (which part of London), what is happening in the photo, who is in the photo? Great photos.
amazing how wretchedly poor those people were, and yet the streets were spotless.
Yes, I absolutely agree, Arwen – presuming there were in fact captions.
This was my great grandparents’ world on two sides of my family. All were Londoners, most from Bermondsey, the stinking tannery hub of the city. Yes, there was poverty but it wasn’t unrelenting misery. I especially like the picture of the boy busker with the harp. Thank you for sharing.
If one goes to the Spitalfields Life page, one will see an article and the captions which belong to these breathtaking photographs. http://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/03/28/john-thomsons-street-life-in-london/
The horses look so ill cared for, one has a leg that’s practically buckling under and so very thin! I know that horses not a priority, just worked until they dropped for the most part. Anna Sewell wrote “Black Beauty” during this time period and one can see why.
People weren´t tall back then… yes, there was poverty but, today there´s misery in neighbourhoods that no one visits…
This a global problem.
the 14th photo from the bottom (the one of the herring cart and barrel outside the News*Agent) – the barefoot little lad holding the white jug with his back to the camera was well-known locally.
He was 18 when this was taken.
Notice how most of them had beards without being labeled as terrorists! Those were indeed good times