The Outer West
- Title:
- The Outer West
- Alternate Title:
- The Outer West
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Booth, Charles, 1840-1916
- Date:
- 1900
- Posted Date:
- 2015-08-25
- ID Number:
- 1138.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_1138_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Poverty/Prostitution/Crime
- Measurement:
- 48 x 38 (sheet) (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- One of the landmark maps of poverty in London published by Charles Booth over the period 1889-1903. See generally Vaughan 2018, ch. 3. Booth was a socially conscious and philanthropic businessman. Confronted with a study estimating that 25 percent of Londoners lived in abject poverty, he set out to demonstrate that the rate was lower. He assembled a research team and set out on an ambitious project that resulted in publication of the 17-volume "Life and Labour of the People in London". The collection includes four examples of Booth's maps, ID ##1138.01-.04.
Booth and his team characterized the social class of the residents of every street in London based on a wide variety of information, including census data, London School Board information, interviews and personal visits accompanying police on their beats. Based on this data, every street was assigned to one or more of seven classes, ranging from Lowest Class (which Booth described as "vicious, semi criminal") and Very Poor to Well-to-do and simply Wealthy. Booth's "code of colours was far from being neutral. Rich classes were expressed with warm tones", the red and gold of the Well-to-do and Wealthy, "and lower classes with cold or dark tones", the black and dark blue of the Lowest Class and Very Poor. Palsky 2008, 423. "Booth stigmatized the most ignorant, the most criminal, or the most miserable parts of the urban territory by dark shades." Friendly 2007, 249.
"Life and Labour" describes each map in detail, sometimes street by street, including general character, poverty, employment, housing, markets, public houses, etc. The notes for this map, "The Outer West", point to "the large houses round Ladbroke Grove, many of which are occupied by Jews; west of that are the 'black' streets of Notting Dale... vicious poverty in the Bangor Street area in Notting Dale." Life and Labor 3:158.
Booth's work was remarkable for its time, a "pioneering" and "monumental" effort in surprisingly modern social science. Barber 2005, 292; Friendly 2007, 249. See generally London School of Economics. "Charles Booth Online Archive," http://booth.lse.ac.uk/, accessed December 19, 2014; Fearon, David. “Charles Booth: Mapping London’s Poverty, 1885-1903," http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/45, accessed December 19, 2014. In the end, Booth concluded that the rate of poverty in London was indeed not 25 percent, but closer to 35 percent.
Charles Booth was unrelated to his contemporary William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army. See ID # 1104.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Booth, Charles. 1902. Life and Labour of the People in London, vol. 3. Third Series: Religious Influences. The City of London and the West End. London: MacMillan and Co.
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.