Descriptive Map of East End Poverty, Compiled from School Board Visitors' Reports

This rare folding map of the East End of London is an example of the very first poverty map published by Charles Booth. It appeared in the first edition of Life and Labour of the People of London. The map shows parts of Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Limehouse, Wapping, Hoxton, and Shoreditch, the poorest part of London at the end of the 19th century. Booth chose to begin his survey here as it would most clearly show the deprivation suffered by a large percentage of London's residents.

A key in the lower-left corner explains that red areas are more comfortable, while blue and black areas are in mild or severe poverty. The colour scale below the map cleverly shows the percentage of the population in each wealth class, revealing the shocking truth that almost a third of residents of the East End were living in poverty.



Printed colour. Framed. [LDN5964]