When we think of Victorian London, we usually picture grand buildings, fancy carriages, and well-dressed ladies and gentlemen. But photographer Adolphe Smith showed us the other side. These are the cramped streets of the East End where most people lived paycheck to paycheck, if they were lucky enough to have paychecks at all. These 32 photographs capture London when it was the world’s biggest city but also home to some of its worst poverty. You’ll see children playing in dirty streets, families in crowded caravans, and workers doing backbreaking jobs just to survive. These images remind us that behind all that Victorian prosperity was a whole other world that most people preferred to ignore.
#1 “Hookey Alf” Of Whitechapel
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#2 Street Doctor
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#3 Old Furniture
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#4 A Convict’s Home
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#5 London Cabmen
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#6 The Crawlers
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#7 Recruiting Sergeants
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#8 Dealers In Fancy-Ware
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#9 Cast-Iron Billy
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#10 Workers On The “Silent Highway”
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#11 Italian Street Musicians
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#12 The Independent Shoe-Black
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#13 London Boardmen
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#14 “Strawberries. All Ripe! All Ripe!” – The Street Fruit Trade
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#15 Black Jack
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#16 Public Disinfectors
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#17 Street Advertising
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#18 The Water-Cart
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#19 Halfpenny Ices
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#20 November Effigies
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#21 The Wall Worker
Image source: flickr.com
#22 “Tickets” The Card-Dealer
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#23 The Cheap Fish Of St-Giles
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#24 The Street Locksmith
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#25 London Nomades
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#26 An Old Clothes Shop, Seven Dials
Image source: flickr.com
#27 The Temperance Sweep
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#28 Covent Garden Flower Women
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#29 Caney The Clown
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#30 The Dramatic Shoe-Black
Image source: flickr.com
#31 Covent Garden Labourers
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
#32 The Sellers Of Shell-Fish
Image source: John Thomson/Adolphe Smith
Follow Us
