Stunning photos of the working poor in Victorian London. Note the wall advertisements.
really rare photos from the streets
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A rare and powerful glimpse of a large segment of Victorian society; Dickens wrote colorfully about these people, but to actually see them, as they were, is a special thing. Re: the posters — the diagonal, almost horizontal placement — careless or calculated? The odd orientation certainly catches the eye, which is what you’d need to make it STAND OUT amidst the incredible clutter along that wall. Am I right in my assumption that the Card Dealer, was actually drawing/hand lettering, some posters that might be plastered along that earlier pictured wall? Or was this more the sort of genteel stuff you’d see in the shops, on or in a display case? I can’t help but think that with the rise of cheap printing/illustration, this fellow’s livelihood is at risk.
I believe the poster man is applying paste to the top of the poster – part of the process during which it doesn’t really matter how he holds it up and is probably a habit.
I cannot help looking for my typist’s ancestors, as a good number lived in those parts, Lambeth and Westminster in particular.
That be a mighty fine ass-cart in picture eight – yes, b’y, mighty fine indeed!
After seeing the lad with the harp, don’t feel out of place playin me chello now!
These are great. I get a feel for the living people they were rather than distant stories and history.
One picture, number 13, did puzzle me briefly. It is captioned: “A black cab looks very different in 1877 as it patrols the London streets looking for customers.”
I didn’t get it at first. I looked at it closely thinking, “It looks like an ordinary cab. What could………oh.” Living in Babbage does that to a person (and I like it).