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On the street in nineteenth-century London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2019

Colin Pooley Open the ORCID record for Colin Pooley [Opens in a new window]
Colin Pooley*
Affiliation:
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article uses statements made at London's Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey) by victims and witnesses of crime in nineteenth-century London to reveal the hidden history of pedestrian movement on the city's streets. It demonstrates that men and women of all ages and social groups walked the streets at most times of the day and night, and argues that walking was not only a normal and taken-for-granted activity, but that pedestrianism could contribute to the development of a community of the street.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 211 - 226
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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References

1 See for example the novels of Charles Dickens and George Gissing, or the art of John Atkinson Grimshaw. Academic work that discusses the use of art and literature includes Finch, J., ‘Pedestrianism, money and time: mobilities of hurry in George Gissing's The Private Papers of Henry Rycroft’, in Mackintosh, P.G., Dennis, R. and Holdsworth, D. (eds.), Architectures of Hurry – Mobilities, Cities and Modernity (Abingdon, 2018), 175–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forgione, N., ‘Everyday life in motion: the art of walking in late-nineteenth-century Paris’, Art Bulletin, 87 (2005), 664–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 For an overview of the history of British transport, see Dyos, H.J. and Aldcroft, D., British Transport: An Economic Survey from the Seventeenth Century to the Twentieth (Leicester, 1969)Google Scholar. For a case-study, see Pooley, C. and Turnbull, J., ‘Commuting, transport and urban form: Manchester and Glasgow in the mid-twentieth century’, Urban History, 27 (2000), 360–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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5 Still active as Living Streets: www.livingstreets.org.uk/.

6 D. Rooney, ‘Keeping pedestrians in their place. Technologies of segregation in East London’, in Mackintosh, Dennis and Holdsworth (eds.), Architectures of Hurry, 120–36.

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9 Old Bailey on-line: www.oldbaileyonline.org/forms/formMain.jsp.

10 The related website, the digital panopticon, provides a full introduction to the Old Bailey records, including analysis and references on a wide range of topics related to crime and justice: www.digitalpanopticon.org/.

11 See, for example, Peter Andersson's study of pickpocketing in Victorian London which does shed some light on pedestrian behaviour: Andersson, P., ‘“Bustling, crowding, and pushing”: pickpockets and the nineteenth-century street crowd’, Urban History, 41 (2014), 291–310CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 These represent 30.1% of the data initially sampled.

13 Spatial analysis of the data is not undertaken in this article.

14 Month by month variation is also affected by when cases were heard at the Old Bailey.

15 See, for instance, Jones, D., Crime, Protest, Community and Police in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London, 1982)Google Scholar; Emsley, C., Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900 (London, 2010)Google Scholar; Andersson, P., Street Life in Late Victorian London: The Constable and the Crowd (Basingstoke, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 A simple four category classification of occupations was used. Details are given in Table 1.

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18 Emsley, Crime and Society; Jones, Crime, Protest, Community and Police.

19 Some 50 diaries from c. 1800 to 1960 have been studied in detail. More information about this research can be found in Pooley, C., ‘Cities, spaces and movement: everyday experiences of urban travel in England c. 1840–1940’, Urban History, 44 (2017), 91–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pooley, C., ‘Travelling through the city: using life writing to explore individual experiences of urban travel c. 1840–1940’, Mobilities, 12 (2017), 598–609CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Minors usually stated their age in their statement but this classification is to some extent arbitrary as otherwise age was not given.

21 Witness statement by Frederick Austin, 8 Jul. 1861. Old Bailey (OB) Ref: t18610708–544.

22 Victim statement by Robert Burn, 12 Jan. 1891. OB Ref: t18910112–154.

23 Victim statement by Ellen Madden, 16 Nov. 1891. OB Ref: t18911116–34.

24 Victim statement by Elizabeth Fox, 24 Oct. 1821. OB Ref: t18211024–53.

25 Children or youths formed only 6.7% of the statements recorded.

26 Victim statement by Ann Hall on behalf of her two children who were robbed in the street, 3 Apr. 1811. OB Ref: t18110403–87.

27 Silver, H., A Social History of Education in England (London, 1973)Google Scholar.

28 Victim statement by Robert Worth (age 9), 30 Oct. 1811. OB Ref: t18111030–46.

29 Victim statement by Patrick Edgely on behalf of his daughter Annie (age 6), 4 May 1891. OB Ref: t18910504–441.

30 Victim statement by Elizabeth Pickard, 10 Jun. 1861. OB Ref: t18610610–474.

31 Prisoner's statement by David Kenrick, 24 Jun. 1901. OB Ref: t19010624–478.

32 Victim statement by Samuel Cooper, 6 Jan. 1831. OB Ref: t18310106–146.

33 Victim statement by William Lewers, 10 Jun. 1861. OB Ref: t18610610–518.

34 Harrison, B., Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England 1815–1872 (Keele, 1994)Google Scholar; Greenaway, J., Drink and British Politics since 1830: A Study in Policy-Making (Basingstoke, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nicholls, J., The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England (Manchester, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Victim statement by Henry Turner, 10 Jun. 1861. OB Ref: t18610610–527.

36 Victim statement by Elizabeth Collins, 6 Apr. 1891. OB Ref: t18910406–379.

37 Witness statement by Ellen Fairway, 12 May 1851. OB Ref: t18510512–1204.

38 Victim statement by Mary Mahoney, 29 Nov. 1841. OB Ref: t18411129–282.

39 Victim statement by Ann Pulham, 28 Jan. 1861. OB Ref: t18610128–162.

40 Witness statement by Elizabeth Sanderson, 10 May 1841. OB Ref: t18410510–1371.

41 Victim statement by Rees Price, 12 Sep. 1821. OB Ref: t18210912–88.

42 Victim statement of Sarah Clark, 3 Feb. 1851. OB Ref: t18510203–495.

43 Victim statement of Dennis Humbert, 12 Sep. 1821. OB Ref: t18210912–188.

44 Victim statement of Albert Evans, 14 Dec. 1891. OB Ref: t18911214–124.

45 Witness statement by Henry Stabb, 1 Dec. 1831. OB Ref: t18311201–82.

46 Victim statement by James Gadsden, 1 Dec. 1831. OB Ref: t18311201–130.

47 Victim statement by John Oxenford, 24 Nov. 1851. OB Ref: t18511124–32.

48 Victim statement by Simon Rochard, 30 Jun. 1831. OB Ref: t18310630–338.

49 Smith, P., Policing Victorian London: Political Policing, Public Order, and the London Metropolitan Police (Westport, CT, 1985)Google Scholar; Andersson, Street Life; Bailey, V. (ed.), Policing and Punishment in Nineteenth Century Britain (London, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Witness statement by Henry Avory (police constable), 4 Feb. 1901. OB Ref: t19010204–176.

51 For a broader discussion of the concept of democratic public space, see Low, S. and Smith, N. (eds.), The Politics of Public Space (New York, 2006)Google Scholar; Cornwall, A. and Coelho, V. Schatten (eds.), Spaces for Change? The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas (London, 2007)Google Scholar.

52 Witness statement by Frances Anderson (age 13), 30 Jun. 1831. OB Ref: t18310630–193.

53 Witness statement by Henry Page (described as a ‘boy’), 30 Jun. 1831. OB Ref: t18310630–96.