Genealogy Chat

see below:

This is a FABULOUS website which features Booths Poverty Map. It allows you to zoom in and see the street names of London and they are colour coded as to their desirability in the late 1890's early 1900s. Go here: Poverty maps of London then click the Browse section. Then click on the general area of London you are interested in seeing, then you can use the zoom tool. You can see the street names and there is colour coding to let you know if your ancestors lived in these categories: BLACK: Lowest class. Vicious, semi-criminal. DARK BLUE: Very poor, casual. Chronic want. LIGHT BLUE: Poor. 18s. to 21s. a week for a moderate family PURPLE: Mixed. Some comfortable others poor. PINK: Fairly comfortable. Good ordinary earnings. RED: Middle class. Well-to-do. YELLOW: Upper-middle and Upper classes. Wealthy. Here is the website address: http://booth.lse.ac.uk/ Enjoy! Cheers, Horatia

Booth's maps are great social history documents. They've got one on the wall at the LDS centre in South Ken, and its amazing how affluent areas are so near the poor ones. I got a book on Criminal Islington from the Islington Local History Centre and found that the road (now demolished) where his gt grandmother was born was a notorious den of thieves, prostitution and general lowlife! nell

Looked at the street where I live now... I live at the pink end sounds about right and the people at the light blue end are like the light blue end then. So many years and yet things don't change????

If you are fortunate to have ancestors in the south of the river areas - like Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Peckham etc. you can buy the notes in book form. I believe this is the first area to be printed as a book. I read mine laying in bed at night, picturing all the streets from the descriptions - it really is quite sad to read, when you know this chpa has stood in your ancestors roads and may be even seen or talked to one of them. Brilliant though.

Its quite contemporary when you read the book. He talks about the area of Rotherhithe up and coming because it is so close to the city centre where afluent people can work.

me

Heather Can you give details of the book version as husband and I both had rellies in that area at some point? Thanks, nell

Nell, one of my sons gave it me at Christmas - I think he got it on Amazon. Its called The Streets of London The Booth Notebooks South East It says £10.99 on the back page! Published by Deptford Forum Publishing Ltd 441 New Cross Road London SE14 6TA ISBN 1 898536 31 (paperback) Covers Southwark, Lambeth, Kennington, Walworth, Borough, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Deptford and New Cross, Peckham, Camberwell, Dulwich, Nunhead, Brockley, Lewisham, Blackheath, Greenwich, Charlton, Woolwich. You may want to get it to own - as it is fascinating. I love the descriptions of the police officers who accompanied the researchers - not very pc! But if you just want streets looked up, let me know. I think its fascinating - I know that one of my families lived in a road 'populated by watermen and those working on the docks. 3 storey houses, children playing by a barrel organ, no sore eyes' Stuff like that. Also, the road where my mum was born (she was thought of as 'posh'!) says things like, 'flowers in pots' - so I suppose it was a bit posh! Also they mention things like 'no bread in the road'. That flummoxed me until I read that old bread was our equivalent of litter today! When you think about it, not a lot would have wrappings then.

I wonder if there are any of these books for other areas of London like Stepney, Poplar, Bethnal Green etc? I'll have to have a look on Amazon. Cheers, Horatia

Apparently this is the only one at the moment Horatia - I think they are working on the rest though.

Heather, Thanks for that. I'lll keep my eyes peeled for their appearance. Cheers, Horatia

May be worth contacting the publishers?