In the Charles Booth Archive, there is a map of London drawn in 1898 which highlights the extent of poverty in London. Charles Booth accompanied police officers on a tour of each district, street by street where they described the inhabitants, levels of poverty & crime and colour coded a map of streets from upper class – wealthy, down to lowest class – vicious, semi criminal.
One of the families we are researching was living in London at the time, and from census records, we found his address as Sun Street, Bishopsgate in London.
A description of the street in which the family lived is described in his notebooks as ‘Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings’, however one block behind Sun Street is Whitecross Lane, which is classified as Lowest class, vicious semi-criminal.
Maybe this is why they decided to emigrate to the colonies ….
Here’s a link if you want to explore your own ancestors location in London : Charles Booth’s London
