Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs

Rating:
Summary: Pictures that DO say a thousand words
Review: John Thomson's photographs come alive in this reprint of his book Street Life in London, originally published in 1877. While the pictures present a striking view of the city's inhabitants, it is the commentary by Thomson and Adolphe Smith that draws you inside the lives of those Londoners who made their living on the streets. From cabmen to shoe-blacks, from ginger-beer makers to chimney sweeps, the reader is swept along from one fascinating career to another. However, while the past may be fascinating to you and I, to the people forever captured by the camera it was a daily battle just to get by. Thomson and Smith have eloquently combined words and photographs to create a stark and haunting view of the day-to-day existence of those Londoners trapped by birth at the bottom of the Victorian social ladder. The book is a stunning achievement, a piece of the past exposed. It fills a void and is a welcome complement to other books on the Victorian era.

Rating:
Summary: Pictures that DO say a thousand words
Review: John Thomson's photographs come alive in this reprint of his book Street Life in London, originally published in 1877. While the pictures present a striking view of the city's inhabitants, it is the commentary by Thomson and Adolphe Smith that draws you inside the lives of those Londoners who made their living on the streets. From cabmen to shoe-blacks, from ginger-beer makers to chimney sweeps, the reader is swept along from one fascinating career to another. However, while the past may be fascinating to you and I, to the people forever captured by the camera it was a daily battle just to get by. Thomson and Smith have eloquently combined words and photographs to create a stark and haunting view of the day-to-day existence of those Londoners trapped by birth at the bottom of the Victorian social ladder. The book is a stunning achievement, a piece of the past exposed. It fills a void and is a welcome complement to other books on the Victorian era.